Now elf ’n’ safety tell conductors to stop punching train tickets ... because they might hurt their wrist
INSPECTORS on one of the country’s busiest train lines will no longer clip tickets because bosses fear they could strain their wrists.
Concerns over repetitive strain injury – the pain in muscles, nerves and tendons caused by constant movement – have forced Abellio Greater Anglia to do away with the traditional clipper that punches a hole in tickets.
Conductors on the Norwich to London Liverpool Street line will instead use a marker pen to put a cross on tickets to alert colleagues that it is valid.
Greater Anglia said: ‘In response to requests from our front-line colleagues, we are phasing out the use of clippers and will be using alternative methods of marking checked tickets.’ A company spokesman said conductors can see as many as 600 passengers on a single journey, and there were also concerns about hole punches making a mess.
One passenger described the move as ‘pathetic’, with regular traveller Tim Phillips, a broker from Suffolk, adding: ‘I find it very hard to believe they suffer from repetitive injury.’
He said: ‘The vast number of regular daily travellers have season tickets that don’t require stamping. It sounds like the latest in a long line of health and safety scares where people are perhaps being a bit over-sensitive.’ But Derek Monnery, chairman of the Manningtree Rail Users Association whose members use the line, said: ‘It may well become a problem and there could be genuine concerns about repetitive strain injury – on a busy commuter train in the morning there could be 250 people with tickets that need checking.
And during the day there may well be even more ticket-holders whose tickets have to be checked.’
Train companies are urging passengers to use e-tickets which can be displayed on a mobile phone or tablet to show they have paid for the journey. The technology could eventually bring to an end the 150-year tradition of clipping tickets nationwide.