10/05/2005 09:36:00 PM|||James O'Malley|||

I've spent the last week travelling back and fourth to University on the train, and I've had the foresight to keep all of my "used" tickets. I say "used" because if there wasn't a date stamped on them, I could easily use them again. For some reason, Midland Mainline seem completely disinterested in checking whether or not someone has bought a ticket- and this puts me into the morally questionable situation: Should I not pay for a ticket, and potentially get free travel, saving money, or should I pay for using Midland Mainline's facilities, like I should do?

Looking at it from a "would you steal a plasma TV that happend to be just sitting in the middle of the road" point of view, I certainly wouldn't but then, the statistics speak for themselves:



As illustrated above- out of eleven tickets (ie: return journies are two tickets), only four were checked. Having spent exactly £30 so far on train tickets, it turns out I could have saved Eighteen Pounds and Forty Pence on tickets that wern't checked. If that number doesn't mean much to you, then it's because you need to factor in when I've used a rail card- and I've also counted a return where the out journey was checked as the cost of a single fare.

But the pie chart speaks for itself- chances are I'd get away with doing it! It's like putting a small child in charge of guarding the entire crown jewels. Admittedly, given the not-so-minimal chance of being checked, the child would probably have say, a machine gun with a pike strapped to the barrel, creating a modern day makeshift bayonet, but my chances would still be pretty high. Children are rubbish at aiming, and operating a complex device, like a pike. They'd also take regular naps, so that'd be the perfect time to strike.

Anyway, should I try and get some free travel? (Possibly including a one way ticket to Hell, too, if the nazi Christians are correct)

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