Do train conductors ever check the reservation (advanced) ticket?

jinky67

p00hsticks wrote: »

I travel on Virgin West Coast trains daily and from observation the guards there are very strict on checking both your ticket and seat reservation if you have an advance ticket. It's always being announced that they'll epxect you to make it up to the full standard fare if you are not on the correctly timed train and/or do not have any railcard with you.

I have seen them stand for 10 mins waiting to see both parts of the ticket

I have often thought about not getting a ticket for the train I regularly get, cos more often than not there is NO inspection, but I wouldnt dare risk it:cool:

ginnersinner

I know not strictly on topic, but why is it that so many people don't listen to announcements (not just on trains, but in general). Or they hear them but don't think it applies to them. I mean, they're sat on the train for about ten minutes before it leaves, and the guy makes those 'you must have the right ticket to travel' announcement about a million times, and people get all uptight and p-ed off when they get a fine for not having the right ticket. You were told, and you had PLENTY of time to check.

I remember once being on an NXEC train out of Kings Cross and the guard announced, several times, this train will be leaving soon, if you're not travelling on the train please get off. We got ten yards down the platform and stopped - someone had pulled the emergency handle cos they'd got trapped on the train. Personally I'd have made them buy a ticket to Stevenage (each) and get off there!

People are just useless at taking in information that's all around them. I regularly get people step through the doors of the train, which isn't leaving for a good five/ten mins, and ask me 'Is this train going to xxx?' I've bitten my tongue every time, but one of these days I'll snap and tell them to read the screens like everyone else - it's not like there aren't several of them hanging up around the station.

Or the time I was at a bus stop, and there was a sign detailing that a service which used to stop here had now moved and was stopping up the road outside Woolworths (or some such). A woman stood there for five minutes reading the sign, then turned to me and asked where the bus service stopped? My wife told me off for answering her in my most sarcastic, condescending voice

moonrakerz

I use Advance tickets a great deal and I am rarely asked for the reservation ticket, OR my railcard, come to that !

Having said that, I went to London on Saturday and was asked on both legs - but, again, not for the railcard.

kyo4o3d

Yes they do check. On a train from Manchester Picadilly to Euston, the couple in front of me were using advanced tickets on the wrong train. They were forced to pay £50 extra each,even though the collector was kind to them and only took the difference between the cheap Ticket and the full single.There were constant announcements on the station, and on the train, before departure about using advanced tickets on the wrong train!