Smoking on train platform

chivers1977

My husband is an idiot :mad::mad: Wanted to say that straight away and am not looking to justify his actions. Am looking at this from a moneysaving perspective.

In February he lit up a cigarette on a train platform not realising that it is an enclosed public space. He put it out straight away and provided all details to the under cover ticket inspector who caught him, He offered to pay a PCN but the inspector said that he would not be able to decide this. Only the other day we thought that maybe it would blow over.

Got a summons through the post today. He will plead guilty obviously and they have provided a statement of means to complete. It says that there will be prosecution costs to pay of £100 plus any fine.

Has anyone been through this - as he wanted to pay the fine up front and was not allowed - is there any mitigating factor such as this that would be taken into account? Have tried googling but not much info available.

Thanks in advance

Pew_Pew_Pew_Lasers!

Suggest you check to see if the station platform no smoking signage was compliant with regulations.

chivers1977

apparently he was 2 metres away from the sign which was behind him. No mitigating factor there!

anewman

Train stations keep giving the warnings over the tannoy as well last I knew of, so if you can't read, there's a repeated verbal announcement.

Get a car and smoke like a chimney

Hintza

Another jobsworth!!!

chivers1977

The best of it is that he never gets the train normally as is driven to work by his mate. He also had given up smoking ( he tells me) and this was an odd fag...... yeah right!

chickmug

Sounds like you are really keen that he should stop smoking;)

You could of spent the fine money on some new clothes?

Volcano

This comes under railway bylaws, not the general smoking restrictions that cover workplaces etc. I believe that when you buy a ticket, you're entering into a contract to stick to their rules and regulations (as it's private property), this is different to the smokefree regulations that cover public places.

vaio

chivers1977 wrote: »

My husband is an idiot :mad::mad:………..In February he lit up a cigarette on a train platform not realising that it is an enclosed public space. …………

I thought enclosed public spaces had to have a roof and at least 50% solid walls. Doesn’t sound like any train platform I’ve ever been on (but last time I was on one you could still smoke on trains)

omelette451

vaio wrote: »

I thought enclosed public spaces had to have a roof and at least 50% solid walls. Doesn’t sound like any train platform I’ve ever been on.

Parts of stations that are under canopies do fall under the smoking ban legislation but the non-covered parts do not (some idiot in government decided to exempt train stations, but not, iirc, bus stations ). However, almost all train companies decided when the ban was brought in to extend the rule to cover all parts of their stations, which they are allowed to do under railway by-laws (just as you can't cycle or skateboard on major stations, etc), and it's presumably this rule that they're using in this case. You could try asking for the penalty to be reduced for 'good behaviour' (i.e. willingly admitted guilt and offering to pay promptly) but it's a long shot, and you're probably best off paying up and forgetting about it - but not before giving him an earful/bashing.

Incidentally, the only train company not to ban smoking on platforms is Merseyrail. A huge mistake imo (especially given that platforms here are so much shorter than they are elsewhere so there's no way to avoid someone's smoke), but I have a feeling it's because all their staff smoke like chimneys and they don't want to cause industrial unrest by asking them to go outside.

kazmc

Absolutely bloody ridiculous that you cannot smoke on a railway station, its become a nanny state and no I do not smoke, just think its mad that people cannot smoke in the open air.
Good luck sorting things out.