TRAIN fare dodgers have coughed up more than £30,000 in a week during a swoop on cheats.

Manchester operator First North Western has hired Securicor teams to help check tickets in morning and evening rush hours - with spectacular results.

Teams have been carrying out spot checks on tickets at Piccadilly, Bolton, Oxford Road and Stalybridge since March.

But because the company does not manage Piccadilly itself, the squads have been reduced to manning one barrier and leaving determined dodgers to duck through other exits and still avoid paying.

But this month, in a deal with Virgin and Railtrack, the teams are cordoning off the whole of the station to check everyone's tickets.

The rail company loses millions of pounds every year to dodgers and bosses say they could buy 15 new trains or train 20 new drivers if everyone paid their fare.

Rush-hour dodge

Trains are so full that dodgers deliberately do not buy a ticket, knowing that the conductor will not reach them during rush-hour journeys.

But apart from the record haul last week, the extra checks this year have persuaded one in ten more passengers to buy season tickets.

Commercial director Paul Bunting said: ''Nobody likes to think that fellow passengers are travelling at their expense.

''It is clear through feedback that we receive at stations that most passengers support our checks and I would urge passengers to buy tickets before they travel wherever possible.''

Passengers who pay for their ticket on the train when they could have bought it on the station forfeit the right to any special discounted tickets.

But the company presses for prosecution of anyone suspected of deliberate fraud - and they face fines of up to £1,000 or three months in jail.

The news comes just days after the M.E.N. revealed plans by the Passenger Transport Authority to boost the number of ticket inspectors on Metrolink when new extensions are working.

Not all travellers have enjoyed FNW's advertising campaign against fare dodgers, however.

Last year, a group of anonymous businessmen, disgruntled with the service, set up their own web-site lampooning bosses.