Understandably, railway companies are moving increasingly towards reinstating ticket barriers at some stations, the most controversial being at Sheffield.

One source (admittedly second-hand) told me that one railway operator thought that non-collected fares on one line might actually be as high as 40%. That's right - less than two thirds of all fares are being collected. That also means that ridership and overcrowding on the same line are also being grossly underreported.

When I was little, every bus in Newcastle had a bright yellow honesty box for uncollected fares. From memory, these were all removed and panelled over in the early seventies - presumably, the cost of employing someone to empty them was more than the cash collected. But in this day and age, with most people using plastic to pay for almost everything, is it time for cashless ticket machines to be installed at all unstaffed stations? Someone else can do the maths - but if my calculations are right, and the reported level of uncollected fares is right, then collecting them all could actually improve revenue by a massive sixty six per cent.

And that's got to be worth having a go at.