Having lived in London for nearly 8 years it amazes me that I can walk on to a train at Manchester Piccadilly, Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Victoria etc without having to walk through a gate. The North West is particularly easy to dodge fares, whereas in London there are very few journeys were there isn't a gate at at least one end of the journey. Even in places like Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol etc you can't get on a train without going through a gate, whereas in Manchester and Liverpool you can.
I also notice the massive difference in quality of trains up there as well. In London you will still get an 8 coach train at off peak times almost everywhere, whereas I'm still shocked that some peak Manchester-Liverpool trains are 2-4 coaches, and up until recently the trains were horrible.
Maybe the tale of this thread is that you get the trains that you pay for!