WELL done, Northern Rail, for a vigilant monitoring of tickets and passes at Blackburn station last week.

It eased my mind that those fares the conductor might have missed would have been collected at the station barrier (in fact the conductors also appeared make a special effort to collect fares on the trains I used).

However, the sceptic in me says it probably won’t last and, before long, hundreds will be travelling again free of charge and the rail company will see a dip in the kind of revenue perpetually required for investment.

Are we close, therefore, to seeing what works so successfully and efficiently across London and the Home Counties, and indeed in other parts of the country including Northern territory (eg Leeds) – the automatic ticket barrier?

Surely a big investment in this almost foolproof system would be money well spent in the long term.

Station staff at makeshift barriers can only do so much – they are human, after all – whereas the automatic barrier clearly states: No ticket, no passage.

Install these barriers across the region and I’m certain the investment would be paid back swiftly in regained revenue from passengers who, until now, don’t pay for their journey unless asked to do so.

Traveller, East Lancs.