AS a regular rail traveller between Bolton and Blackburn, I can’t help but notice how many passengers from Darwen get a free ride.

Whichever morning train I catch, it always fills at Darwen, yet very rarely do I see the guard pass through to sell tickets.

It’s as though he’s decided ‘it’s only one stop, so why bother?’ Many passengers sit patiently with fares in hand waiting diligently to buy their ticket, only to alight at the other end bemused but evidently cheered by the fact that they have saved nearly £3.

During the summer, ticket checks were carried out on alighting passengers at the top of the platform approach, forcing many to backtrack to the booking office to buy a ticket. This, sadly, now seems to have tailed off.

I don’t begrudge passengers their free ride and there is no jealousy that I’ve paid and they haven’t. It’s hardly their fault.

But I do resent the fact that I’m likely to read sometime soon in this newspaper that investment in this heavily-used line has yet again been denied simply because passenger numbers do not justify it.

Be assured, the passenger numbers are there. However, they are not going to appear on some pen-pusher’s revenue report if all those people travelling free from Darwen are not counted.

RAIL USER (name and address supplied).