Are train travellers without the right ticket treated fairly?

A question about : Are train travellers without the right ticket treated fairly?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31149024

Best answers:

• Yes, I saw this and thought what an unpleasant system; maybe to match the unpleasant aspects of the country we live in.
• The station my son uses to get to work is permanently unmanned and only has a ticket machine. So if that isn't working he cannot get a ticket. Slapping fines on people because the rail companies want to cut costs is daylight robbery. Discretion should be used in these circumstances.
  I get confused when I go online and look at rail fares and different types of journey. To get the best deals you have to be really savvy as some of them are very strict on routes.
  There will always be those that flout the law and when these people are caught they should be punished. But common sense and reasonableness should be used as a norm.
• It is unfair to the people who have genuine reason not to have a ticket but then no system is perfect and the majority of the time it is just people getting a free ride who have been caught out.
• What is more annoying is when fair dodgers are caught without a ticket and are allowed to simply buy a ticket from the conductor. Some even say they only just got on! Ludicrous. What incentive is there to buy a ticket in the first place if the worst that can happen is you have to buy a cheaper ticket part-way through the journey? I know there is a Ј20 fine but in 10 years of daily train travelling I've never seen it enforced though I have seen many, many tickets sold on the train.
• The station I catch a train to work from is unmanned and has no ticket machine so the only way is to buy a ticket from the conductor on the train which is never a problem.
  A few years back I used to have a 16-25 railcard and ordered my tickets in advance online. The morning of travel I got to the station and 2 minutes before my train was due to arrive I realised I hadn't picked my railcard up. As soon as I got on the train I found the conductor straight away and explained my problem. He was fine with it but as I was travelling on another 2 trains it'd be best for me to pay the difference which was okay with me. EXCEPT my card wouldn't bloody work in offline transactions. So he advised me to go to the ticket office at my changeover station and pay there. At my changeover station the ticket office was closed so again, as soon as the train pulled up I found the conductor straight away, explained my problem and he was okay with it. I also did the same thing for the following train and then for the whole 3 train journey to come back the following day.
  Maybe the conductors were nicer to me about it because I approached them as soon as I got on instead of waiting for them to come to me?
• I recently purchased a first class ticket from Preston to Euston for a specific train which cost over Ј200. There were two trains leaving Preston for London within 10 minutes of each other and I was a bit late getting to the station so one was already at the platform. I got on the wrong one. I don't travel on the train often, but realised a few minutes in to the journey that I must be on the wrong train. When the conductor came to me I immediately told him what I had done. I had to buy another Ј200+ ticket. Luckily, the journey was for work and so both were reimbursed.
• I had a train booked to and from London, on the return journey I came off early as I didn't realise it was passing through a station that was much closer to where I lived.
  When I tried to go through the barrier on the way out, the inspector and I ended up in a huge argument. He basically said that I'd voided my journey and needed to be fined for it.
  This ended with me speaking to his superiors over the phone who eventually let me off - my argument was I couldn't see who I had inconvenienced by getting off the train early. If anyone was inconvenienced, it was me for paying for a ticket to travel further than I had needed.
  Such a strange and weird system.
• Yes. I am of the opinion that fare dodgers should be charged twice the six month season ticket for their journey.
• I would say clamp down hard on people who have no ticket at all. But the system is too harsh on people who simply have the wrong type of ticket. The problem is that the ticketing system is so incredibly complicated that as someone who only occasionally uses the train system, I don't fully understand all the ins and outs of the seemingly hundreds of ticket types, never mind exactly which trains I can and can't use to make a journey.
• Completely agree bap...
• I think perhaps what Stigy meant/should have said was - the FIRST opportunity to pay should always be used.
  i.e. if there was genuinely no way a ticket for any part of the journey could be issued prior to travel then seeking out ticketing staff should be a priority.
  It doesn't mean it's a necessity legally, but it would prevent some of those passengers being unfairly penalised after alighting later.
  The 'guard not coming through the train' is unfortunately misused on a daily basis as an excuse (not a reason) for those who have kept their head down and said nothing when 'a call over' is made as the guard doesn't have time to check everyones tickets after every stop, I am sure it happens especially on late night trains, but IME at least 80% of those who use this 'reason' are telling porkies.
  I am not going to defend shoddy management or poor training, it was certainly better under BR even with less technology, or maybe because of less technology.
  Any booking office that has a massive queue or ticket machines U/S should quite easily be able to inform ticketing staff elsewhere and allow them to use discretion, it's not rocket science, and I'd wager 99% of them already do so.
  However a remarkably poor & sensationalist article by the BBC IMHO, akin more to the evening standard IMHO.
  1.
  Only courts issue 'fines' not ticketing staff/inspectors or anyone else, just courts.
  If a passenger is issued a penalty fare or a higher standard fare for any reason their 1st point of call should be with the train operation company, no one else.
  Ignoring a PF or similar might however end up in court where a real 'fine' would be issued.
  There are 5 bullet points to appeal against having a PF at the end:
  2 are exactly the same
  Another - A queue being 'too long' at the joining station is NOT a valid excuse for boarding without a ticket, (and it's also one of the most over used excuses by those intending not to pay the proper fare).
  It MAY be a reason why ticketing staff (who presumably have seen the queue?) would not issue a PF/higher fare ticket but it's not the 'get out clause' this bullet point seems to be implying.
  Who's to say the person at the back of the queue didn't get there with insufficient time to purchase before boarding?
  The only advice I can give for those wishing to use the 'another member of staff told me so & so' reason is to make sure either the member of staff is known to you & WILL back you up (even if they are wrong) or get it in writing from them at the time, since, again, this excuse is trotted out by those who didn't ask anyone and are looking for a 'get out'.
  IIRC the instruction on how to deal with season ticket holders who had genuinely left their railcard elsewhere was that a ticket should be issued in the first instance which could be refunded in full when they showed the railcard at a booking office.
  In which case, apart from the inconvenience of paying a full fare for the day it shouldn't be an issue.
  Unless of course the BBC and their sources are confusing those who leave the season ticket behind once with those who do so more regularly?
  It's not unknown for couples who commute to attempt to share a season ticket for instance, how would simply refunding the 'forgetful soul' each time prevent that then?
  Frankly I believe that a TOC (if they are of course actually able to attribute a reasonably accurate level of revenue lost through dishonesty) could publish a poster or even label the tickets with - 10% of this ticket price could be reduced if the bloke 3 seats down from you had been more honest...etc! :-)
  'I think it's OK to fare dodge as the prices are ridiculous' doesn't wash with me I am afraid, anymore than I sympathise with shoplifters, burglars or those who steal fuel.