Where to get off amid regional rail woes

other name. Its tinpot ticket inspectors are not the police; they are not arbiters of guilt and nor are they trained to deal with the vulnerable. They are not authority figures either; they are strangers from whom children should very sensibly run away.

Northern’s requirement to buy a ticket before boarding, rather than after, is in any case compromised by the continued presence of guards selling them inside the carriages – a practice that has historically earned them commission.

And given that nearly one train in two now runs late, it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to pay upfront on the offchance that the next one may turn up.

Leaving aside the company’s misconceived take on public relations – not bothering to keep passengers informed but taking every opportunity to hector them – it is going to have to realise that it is not in a position to claim the moral high ground on anything. The boot is on the other foot. It’s the service that’s criminal, not the people use it.

Several MPs warned Northern two years ago that it risked its franchise if it mismanaged its new system of fining passengers who had not bought their tickets in advance. Since then, the elected mayors of Liverpool and Manchester, have joined the chorus calling for it to be derailed. Finally, the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, announced to the Commons last month that he had taken the first steps towards doing just that.

But the company’s continued and unashamed heavy-handedness demonstrates that change must come on the platform, not just in the boardroom. Parents will be horrified at the thought of their children having to run the gauntlet of intimidating and often aggressive staff with ideas above their station. Many are not even full-time employees.

It can only be a matter of time before someone takes an allegation of harassment before the courts, and it will serve Northern right.

Its default position right now ought to be on its knees, grovelling to anyone who will listen. Its latest press release demonstrates that far from improving, it is getting worse.

And its behaviour is not the result of the “circumstances beyond its control”, that are its usual mantra, but of the fundamental contempt for the travelling public that is written into its DNA. It’s high time we reminded its inspectors, and all the rest of them, where to get off.