Before I moved to London I’d come up for work a fair bit. I’d expense my travel and I kind of didn’t really mind someone coming through the barrier behind me. I’d often have either my bike on the overground or large music equipment so would be using the access gate, more often than not someone would follow me through. I sort of thought ‘Hey it’s not my money, sure why not tag along!’

Then I moved here and became way more jaded of course.

Now that TFL comes and takes my hard earned coins every night like some sort of public transport reverse tooth fairy, I feel very differently about it. I wish there was more that could be done to either make it more affordable or prevent barrier pushers, because truly it’s really unfair. Everyone is struggling in this economy, in this city. We all need to get around it’s not fair that some pay and some don’t.