Rail Card System?

davenport151

I bet she won't forget it again! Lesson learned.

Had she already purchased the tickets? In which case a good idea is to leave them with your railcard.

If not i'm guessing she had brought them from the machine at the station because she would have had to show her railcard if she had brought from the ticket windows. Thats my experience anyway.

ciderboy2009

One quick thought - has she already got her return ticket?

If she has, and it's based on her having her railcard, then you could be looking at another £60

JohnG

ciderboy2009 wrote: »

One quick thought - has she already got her return ticket?

If she has, and it's based on her having her railcard, then you could be looking at another £60

Thanks, will have to check that one out :eek:

JohnG

CharlieRabbit01 wrote: »

only way to ensure i always have my rail card with me is to keep it in my wallet behind my debit card which i more often than not have on me.

That's where the problem lay, because of the festival, her Mum thoughtfully and sensibly (I must add) suggested she should only take the minimum in terms cards ie just a debit card in her purse/wallet. Unfortunately I think she took out the rail card at the same time - daft of course but when you have so many things going on I think it's easy to overlook something like that (In my daughters defence).

I was talking to one of my clients today about this, a chap who travels quite a bit on trains and he himself left his Rail Card behind on one occasion. He was accosted by a lady inspector who was extremely officious but he defended his corner vehemently questioning whether he looked like someone who would diddle the train company out of a relatively small amount of money? (Pin stripe suit etc). Anyway, he said he wouldn't pay at that point and that they will have to send an invoice to his address - at that point the woman reluctantly relented and said she would let him off on that one occasion.
Needless to say, he agrees there ought to be a way of linking the Rail card to the ticket purchase.

Maybe one day the system will be brought into the 21st century meanwhile no doubt many others will be innocently caught out by it but hopefully not us .

p00hsticks

JohnG wrote: »

Needless to say, he agrees there ought to be a way of linking the Rail card to the ticket purchase.

Maybe one day the system will be brought into the 21st century meanwhile no doubt many others will be innocently caught out by it but hopefully not us .

I think that you are in the minority with your thinking here - as many of the previous posters have pointed out, there are a number of sensible reasons why usage of railcards should depend on the person having the card with them at the time of travel (and not necessarily at the time of purchase).

Linking the ticket to the railcard via a reference number just provides another level of administration (to add to the cost of tickets in general) and would mean that people had to have the card at the time of buying the tickets - at present, you can book tickets months in advance and only need to buy the rail card the day before, to get a full 12 months use from it.

If your daughter had remembered her railcard but forgotten her tickets, what would you propose the rail companies should do then ?

CharlieRabbit01

JohnG wrote: »

Maybe one day the system will be brought into the 21st century meanwhile no doubt many others will be innocently caught out by it but hopefully not us .

I disagree with this as another post has said, I have bought my tickets in advanced before but then only purchased my rail card a couple of days before travel to benefit from the full 12 months.

Stigy

JohnG wrote: »

I was talking to one of my clients today about this, a chap who travels quite a bit on trains and he himself left his Rail Card behind on one occasion. He was accosted by a lady inspector who was extremely officious but he defended his corner vehemently questioning whether he looked like someone who would diddle the train company out of a relatively small amount of money? (Pin stripe suit etc). Anyway, he said he wouldn't pay at that point and that they will have to send an invoice to his address - at that point the woman reluctantly relented and said she would let him off on that one occasion.
Needless to say, he agrees there ought to be a way of linking the Rail card to the ticket purchase.

An interesting statement. What does a fare evader look like? A lot of the time, just like your client. A small amount of money on one occasion amounts to, quite often, thousands of if done daily.

It was a risky business refusing the Penalty Fare Notice, as that's the TOC being nice and using discretion. If she wanted, she could have reported him to her Prosecutions Department and they could have summonsed him to court to let him plead his case to the Magistrates.

This issue with rail cards that people don't often see (not looking at the bigger picture if you like), is that what's to say the individual, even if they do posses one but haven't got it on them, hasn't 'lent' it to a friend? Yes they often have photo cards, but lets face it, a photo isn't always a clear likeliness of the holder on the best of days!

The Penalty Fare Notice is meant as a deterrent against fare evasion, and is meant for situations such as this, where quite often it's very plausible that an innocent mistake has occurred. It could have been a lot worse. The OP's daughter got off even lighter if the £60 was actually an Unpaid Fare Notice and not a Penalty Fare, as the amount owed would be significantly less too.

Handsome90

Stigy wrote: »

It was a risky business refusing the Penalty Fare Notice, as that's the TOC being nice and using discretion. If she wanted, she could have reported him to her Prosecutions Department and they could have summonsed him to court to let him plead his case to the Magistrates.

I don't think that's John's the client did. What I inferred from his post is that his client refused to pay on the spot. I believe you can do that but the then the train guard will ask for your name and address (you'll have to provide these details).

geordieracer

JohnG wrote: »

I was talking to one of my clients today about this, a chap who travels quite a bit on trains and he himself left his Rail Card behind on one occasion. He was accosted by a lady inspector who was extremely officious but he defended his corner vehemently questioning whether he looked like someone who would diddle the train company out of a relatively small amount of money? (Pin stripe suit etc). Anyway, he said he wouldn't pay at that point and that they will have to send an invoice to his address - at that point the woman reluctantly relented and said she would let him off on that one occasion.
Needless to say, he agrees there ought to be a way of linking the Rail card to the ticket purchase.

.

LOL. Wearing a suit doesnt mean anything :rotfl:

Funnily enough during my time working on the railways in Britain it was those who were dressed in a sharp suit and tie that were the most prolific of fare evaders and not just those who would purchase discounted tickets without a railcard either, proper hardcore evaders. The revenue team at the TOC I last worked for managed to get 2 people within a month who had been doing the railway out of money for years and were in very high profile jobs and one within a govt department. Both paid up very healthy amounts of money to save it from going to court too.


There have also been many cases at various London termini where beggars wearing suits would ask for money from people in the belief they had left their wallets at home and needed to get back home with a promise to refund them in the post, people fell for it too. Many times.

Wearing a suit means absolutely nothing about a persons character nor their intentions.

Stigy

Handsome90 wrote: »

I don't think that's John's the client did. What I inferred from his post is that his client refused to pay on the spot. I believe you can do that but the then the train guard will ask for your name and address (you'll have to provide these details).

Have re-read it and agree...Oversight on my part

Indeed you can refuse to pay on the spot, as long as the full single fare due is paid on request (Not Penalty amount).