Photo by Jonn@Londonist
Simply text ‘Dodger’ to 60006, including a description of the suspect and the reasoning behind your accusation (‘Suspiciously swarthy. Keeps going to toilet’), and let NEEA's crack team of ticket inspectors do the rest.
So impressed were we by the genius of a system that outsources revenue protection to passengers that we decided to give it a go. Last weekend we texted a description of one of our number to the appropriate hotline and sat back, confidently expecting the ticket inspectors to swoop in like some form of black ops unit.
Alas, no inspectors ever arrived, and the only response was a text thanking us for our information. A second attempt on the return journey met with similar indifference. This, it seems to us, rather reduces the scheme's potential for mischief.
National Express, you may recall, is the train operating company that lost the East Coast franchise after running into financial problems. After that, you'd think it would take fare evasion just a little more seriously.