MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Would you contribute to a stranger’s train ticket?

SADIE

Definitely yes and even if it left me short of money.

Cloudane

Interesting one. If it happened over here, "probably no" (depends, as will be explained), because there are different rules and circumstances etc. Abroad... the 'fair' part of me says that if you say yes, why not non-English too. OTOH, abroad you can be quite completely on your own at times - often by your own fault, but we're only human.

As usual, I'd gauge it by impressions, instinct and attitudes. Generally speaking people outside of "the masses" are nice, especially when abroad (for various reasons) and the only time I'd be abroad is on holiday. When it comes to being on holiday, a tenner is nothing, and you have the chance of forming a friendship. Why not say "you can pay me back, here are my details" - in a friendly and chilled out way - and then drop it when they're nice enough to get in touch?

I have enough faith in humanity still, I guess

adamwantsadb9

I wouldnt, let her get the fine, she will be home soon and it will be very hard for the foreign country to enforce it anyway.

she will pay more attention next time then

bat_2

yes I would contribute, do to others as you would wish done to you!!

spankygoodtime

Around 6 weeks ago I met a young Spanish woman of around 18 who was distraught. She asked me to speak to someone on her mobile as she didn't speak much English.

She had left her wallet, plane ticket and passport on a tour bus. The driver had found it. Fortunately she had a card in it, with her name, mobe and address in Spain written on it, so he called the phone.

He had told her to go to the Tate Gallery where he would wait for her. We walked around a bit until something dawned on me, and I rang the man and asked if he could see St Pauls across the river. When he said no I knew what had happened.

This girl needed to get to the airport so I shoved her in a black cab and took her from the new Tate modern to the Tate on Millbank where she was reunited with her property. I paid the fare to that point, and the cab driver who had listened to this girl sobbing in the back of his car and asked what was wrong, then took her round to Victoria coach station for free.

I wouldn't let this girl repay me the money for the cab fare, and asked her to help someone else should it ever be necessary. The last thing she said to me was, "I'll never forget you" and I'm sure she won't.

I'd given her my mobile no incase we got separated while look for the driver at the new Tate. The following week my phone rang and I picked up to find an English speaking friend of her parents who had called me from Spain to say thank you. That meant more to me than anything has for a long time.

Fivenations

In the UK yes, but as it's abroad, no - I would first try to reason with the conductor to let her off as she was a tourist and had misunderstood etc. It would be hard for them to collect the fine. If he threatened to call security I would call his bluff first. I've been in this siutation myself in Italy as a student and managed to sweet talk my way out. It helped that my fellow Italian passengers, all strangers, ganged up on the poor man! He was a jobsworth but had to give in.

teddyco

Shouldn't we all boycott the train companies first to bring down their exorbitant ticket fees and then deal with this question? My wife and I recently lost our car for a few days while it was in the shop and I was shocked at the cost to take a short train journey. No wonder all the roads in this country are congested....trains and buses are either too expensive or don't go where we want them to go.

ihatepoorcustomerservice

what if the person was Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Irish or "British"?

Presumably we would help all these people as well...?

ubrain

Clearly the only sensible thing to do is to call, loudly for the woman's torture and execution for the the communal benefit of decent honest rail travellers everywhere - thus giving her a diversion behind which to slip discretely off the train at the next stop

Brightness

ihatepoorcustomerservice wrote: »

what if the person was Scottish, Welsh, Northern Irish, Irish or "British"?

Presumably we would help all these people as well...?

As I have already stated above (& posted again below!), I would! Incidentally I am a Welsh woman living in England & have been racially abused for it (and not just jokingly either But I do know that not all people are bad just because of where they originate from or live!

Brightness wrote: »

it wouldn't matter a jot to me what race the human being was from. If someone was in genuine trouble I would help them if I could, no question.

.......

ubrain wrote: »

Clearly the only sensible thing to do is to call, loudly for the woman's torture and execution for the the communal benefit of decent honest rail travellers everywhere - thus giving her a diversion behind which to slip discretely off the train at the next stop

PMSL that's hilarious. Can you imagine the confusion and uproar it'd cause - if the people in that country understood of course...... :rolleyes: