Four Greater Manchester schools warned after ‘persistent, calculated’ crimes
manchestereveningnews.co.ukA rail firm has issued a plea to headteachers in a crackdown on ‘‘persistent, calculated fare evasion’ by students. Northern has written to the heads of 11 secondary schools and academies across the North of England.
The plea comes after a spate of incidents since September 2023, which included students travelling without tickets, ticket fraud and anti-social behaviour as well as verbal and physical assaults on conductors and station staff.
In some cases behaviour at stations has been so bad that Northern has had to request support from British Transport Police to maintain order.
Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “What we’re seeing is persistent, calculated fare evasion. With secondary school students, fare evasion incidents tend to occur on relatively short journeys between rural and suburban stations which are not barrier-controlled.
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