A school in Greater Manchester is among the top five in the north west for students caught evading rail fares. Northern Rail has put Turton High School, in Bromley Cross, Bolton, 'On Report' after a number of students were caught without a ticket.
Turton School, which is a very short walk from Bromley Cross train station, is the only school in Greater Manchester on the list, with Wilmslow High School to the south in Cheshire also on the list. Northern says it is now working with the Bolton school to urge parents to buy a heavily discounted season tickets for students.
This would be instead of giving students money for individual fares, which many may 'pocket', Northern says, and risk travelling without a ticket. Many of the journeys where kids were found to be evading fares were short and for stations without ticket barriers, with conductors often unable to do full ticket inspections.
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More random ticket inspections at stations such as Bromley Cross are being put in place to tackle fare evading, Northern said. “Everyone has a responsibility to buy a ticket before they travel. Unfortunately, some students think that rule doesn’t apply to them – and routinely fare evade on our services," Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said.
“It’s important they know that fare evading is a criminal act and in the future they could end up with a criminal record for the sake of paying the, heavily discounted, student fare. With the end of the school year almost upon us, we are urging parents from September not to give their child money with the hope they will buy a ticket, but to save money by ensuring their child has a ticket by buying it for a cheaper rate in advance.”
The rest of the schools to make the top five list were: Rainhill High School, Rainhill, Merseyside, Honley High School, Holme Valley, West Yorkshire, and Wade Deacon High School, Widness. For more information about educational season tickets, and to purchase one for the new academic year in September, please visit: www.northernrailway.co.uk/tickets/educational-season .
Turton School have been approached for a comment.
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