Personally I would prefer to see ticket checkers with a portable ticket machine (like on Rosslare services) then RPU staff, mainly because a) they tend to be much nicer to customers than RPU staff, and b) if someone could not purchase the correct ticket from a TVM before boarding the train they can sell it to them. The problem with the TVMs is they don't sell/print SW or child tickets (for obvious reasons), and they also do not sell cross route tickets. I regularly get cross route tickets as they are more convenient and also alot cheaper (buying a separate ticket for each leg of my journey would cost me almost double!). I usually start my journey on the Rosslare line where I buy my ticket from the booking office if open and on the train if it's not, no problems. However once I was travelling the other direction (starting on the Kildare line) and needed a ticket, but the booking office was closed and the TVMs could not sell my ticket. So got on the train with full intention of buying a ticket as normal either on it, or at Heuston. I met an RPU officer on the train with my cash and student card in hand and explained my situation and inability to buy my ticket at the station. However he was very rude to me and was very much by the book: you have no ticket, you pay a fine. I even had old tickets from portable ticket machines to prove my point, but he didn't care, 120 euro fine. There was no need for the rudeness and clearly I was not fare evading if I'm asking to buy a ticket from him. And as I say this could happen to anyone looking for cross route/child/SW tickets. So I think ticket checkers are the way forward, not RPU ambushes
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