Got on wrong train fined £115 - anything I could have done?

PolishBigSpender

So you got on a train that you didn't have a valid ticket for, got caught and had to pay for a single ticket as a result. You've got no-one to blame but yourself

It's not Virgin's responsibility to make sure that you understand that a pre booked ticket is only valid for the service that you booked it for!

MikeR371

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

It's not Virgin's responsibility to make sure that you understand that a pre booked ticket is only valid for the service that you booked it for!

I don't think anyone is saying that it is. Just that if the train is half empty then a bit of common sense should prevail.

Lavendyr

PolishBigSpender wrote: »

So you got on a train that you didn't have a valid ticket for, got caught and had to pay for a single ticket as a result. You've got no-one to blame but yourself

Not a massively helpful post, the OP is clearly aware of this. Your smiley face makes it look as though you are taking pleasure in his misfortune, incidentally. I hope that is not the case, as it would not be a very nice thing to do.

blued

Sounds like the conductor was a bit of a jobsworth. A friend of mine works as an engineer and therefore gets free train journeys and heavily discounted tickets for people travelling with him. One conductor on the route we use always makes a fuss when checking our discounted tickets whereas others just treat them as normal tickets and hardly give them a second glance.

SandC

Agree with Kwak. You should have only had to pay the difference between what you paid and the full price ticket. Even after paying for the whole new ticket you should have got at least a partial refund on the £85 that you didn't end up using.

As others have said, you are relying on the goodwill of the conductor. I had similar happen to me only I was only coming back from Manchester to Stoke on the Picadilly/Euston train. I had finished my business early and just got on the next train. The conductor looked at my ticket, was really apologetic and told me I had to pay up full fare. He then borrowed the ticket of a lady nearby who had paid £115 or something and told me I had to pay the difference. Luckily I pointed out that the lady concerned was going to London and I was only going to Stoke, at which point he apologised repeatedly for giving me a right old scare and went to the next table.

Where whaddya know - two passengers who were actually going all the way to london had done exactly the same. We all had a bit of banter and he ended up letting them off as well.

I think all in all they must have a bit of room for common sense, it must surely swing in roundabouts and if the journey is off peak even more so.

You could still try and get refund on your £85.

computershack

MikeR371 wrote: »

Hey I'm not looking for sympathy here, I know I was on the wrong train. I'm just trying to understand what I could have done here to avoid paying a whopping amount for getting into Manchester 20 minutes early!

Get on the right train....

MikeR371

computershack wrote: »

Get on the right train....

Like I said, I tried that, but the guard wasn't having it...