Professor slapped with £155 railway fine for getting off his train one stop EARLY

A._Badger

moonrakerz wrote: »

This man was either incredibly stupid to be travelling on a ticket he didn't understand or he was trying a "fiddle".

As he is apparently a highly educated "professor" - draw your own conclusions.

Utter twaddle. It has already been explained that he didn't buy the tickets personally.

Even if he had, the larcenous rail companies take full and cynical advantage of a privileged status they should no longer enjoy to set terms and conditions that no one without an hour or two to spend reading them in depth could possibly be expected to be familiar with.

Do you, by some chance, happen to work for one of these bunches of crooks?

datostar

moonrakerz wrote: »

This man was either incredibly stupid to be travelling on a ticket he didn't understand or he was trying a "fiddle".

As he is apparently a highly educated "professor" - draw your own conclusions.

He was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 PM this evening. He sounded eminently reasonable and appreciated that he had breached the terms, albeit unwittingly because there is no mention of this on the ticket itself. A mouthpiece for the Railway Company stated that it was all on the website. The Professor's gripe was with the fact that he was treated as some kind of cheat and that he regarded a penalty of £155 when the original ticket price was £88 as disproportionate.
I fully agree with him. It is on a par with the disgusting and greedy practice of heavily fining people who have paid for parking but whose ticket has fallen off the windscreen.

thescouselander

I think this just highlights the problem with rail travel in this country. Yes, the prof broke the Ts&Cs but had this been any other sort of contractual agreement those Ts&Cs would most likely be deemed to be unfair and unenforceable. Its only because the private rail firms have inherited the old railway laws they can get away with this sort of thing. Personally I think the old railway laws should be repealed and ticket Ts&Cs should be brought in line with normal contract law.

Livingthedream

thescouselander wrote: »

Its only because the private rail firms have inherited the old railway laws they can get away with this sort of thing. Personally I think the old railway laws should be repealed and ticket Ts&Cs should be brought in line with normal contract law.

Well said, however, the train companies' won't give up their cash cow without a fight and will quote; more fare dodgers = lost income = no money to invest in future rail projects.

boliston

spiro wrote: »

The APEX fares are the worst when they specify the train time, carriage and seat on the ticket. If the inspector finds you in a seat other than the one specified on the ticket they can demand payment for the full price single fare for the journey you are undertaking. Cheap tickets come at a price and this is it.

I often sit in a different seat (within the same class) as quite often someone else has sat in my reserved seat. I would just tell him i'll have to stand rather than pay to sit in a different seat!

(or invite him to evict who was sitting in my booked seat)

mjm3346

datostar wrote: »

He was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 PM this evening. He sounded eminently reasonable and appreciated that he had breached the termsThe Professor's gripe was with the fact that he was treated as some kind of cheat and that he regarded a penalty of £155 when the original ticket price was £88 as disproportionate.

£88 was not the fare for the journey he took, he did not have a valid ticket for his journey.
It was not a penalty it was the fare for the actual journey he took. I thought they were supposed to charge twice the standard fare as a penalty, looks like he got off lightly.

If the fare you should have paid is £10.00 or less, the penalty will be £20.00. If the fare was over £10.00, the penalty fare will be double the fare