Money Moral Dilemma: Someone forgot to take their train ticket - should I use it?

Dunebug6

I think a few in here are missing something important, asking what is moral has nothing to do with the legality of it.

Technically in the company's contract it says tickets aren't transferable whether for parking or for train tickets. But, it's pretty much an unenforceable rule, for most parking lots, you don't enter your registration to go with your ticket and there's nothing that identifies you on it, same with train / tram tickets unless you do it online or through a railcard.
You could (and I don't know if this has been changed since uncovering this) kill a Scotsman in York as long as it was with a crossbow (or longbow, one of the two) and it'd be technically legal, but would that make it moral? Of course not.
Someone has paid for the ticket and it would only go to waste otherwise, you're not being moral by giving a company free money by letting the ticket go unused, no one will ever find out, if it's been 20 minutes, no one is coming back for that ticket, this is being efficient.
To those bringing up "you wouldn't do this with someone's wallet" there's a key difference in that the money in your wallet / purse doesn't have a time limit on it, someone can come back to it at any time and use that wallet, while that ticket will be out of date once the train has left.

Money_maker

Wow, that dilemma pulled in an awful lot of newbies ...

Cisco001

No.

If you go to the machine and buy ticket straight away, I would assume you are taking a short journey, probably cost less than £10.

If it is a longer journey, you probably would have pre-booked it before heading to station. (We are moneysaver!!)

Ask yourself, would you want to save £10 and get yourself into trouble.
I would definitely say no.

Cisco001

AndyFras wrote: »

Last year, my husband and I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly station to collect our tickets from the machine. We were in a rush so grabbed the tickets and fled for our train. As we boarded the train for Edinburgh, I noticed that the return tickets were missing. Obviously, there must have been a pause between the outward bound and inward ones being printed. If the next person to use the machine had handed the tickets in to the office, we wouldn’t have had to pay again to come home. Sadly, nobody did.

There is mobile ticket/ eticket now. You no longer require to collect the ticket in station

glider3560

Cisco001 wrote: »

There is mobile ticket/ eticket now. You no longer require to collect the ticket in station

Only on some routes, with some operators and only if you book through certain websites.

They are also less flexible than paper tickets and require additional ID to be shown alongside the ticket.

gloriouslyhappy

Cisco001 wrote: »

No.

If you go to the machine and buy ticket straight away, I would assume you are taking a short journey, probably cost less than £10.

If it is a longer journey, you probably would have pre-booked it before heading to station. (We are moneysaver!!)

Ask yourself, would you want to save £10 and get yourself into trouble.
I would definitely say no.

The machines are also used to print pre-purchased tickets so your assumption might be wrong. I do this all the time, you have to nominate the station where you're going to collect them, then go to the machine, insert credit card and ticket ref, and the machine spits out the tickets. Very useful when buying tickets for other people eg family members who won't be travelling with you making e-tickets impractical.

Ergates

db2016 wrote: »

fair game for me!



as someone said it's money saving expert!



do you really think the police are gonna come after you for a ticket. when much bigger things like house break ins or cars being nicked get NFA'd!



see it as a nice lil life bonus!

So, it's OK to steal if you can get away with it? That's an interesting perspective.

jbkmum

glider3560 wrote: »

Easier said than done. There is no central database of who bought what ticket. You'd have to lookup the selling train company or travel agent, then contact them. They wouldn't be able to provide the details due to GDPR.

And if the ticket were bought at a station, then there's no record of who bought it.

Yes and no.

There is a central database, it retains card numbers used to purchase and collect tickets for a period of 6 months. TVMs are not operated by the TOC, they are operated by RDG

Throwaway1

SultanPepper wrote: »

In the past i have bought the wrong ticket and left it in the machine for someone to pick up.

I often do this with parking as well. Pay for day, and provided it isnt linked to my car reg, I either hand it to someone at a machine or leave in or stuck to the machine.

This is what I was here to say. I've bought the wrong ticket/something came up immediately after buying and I've just left it in/stuck to the machine for someone else to use. If I saw one, I'd instantly think that is what has happened. I always pass on my parking ticket too if there is any time left on it. Probably shouldn't do it but it always makes my day when someone gives me theirs and it looks like I make other people's when I give them mine too.

glider3560

jbkmum wrote: »

Yes and no.

There is a central database, it retains card numbers used to purchase and collect tickets for a period of 6 months. TVMs are not operated by the TOC, they are operated by RDG

But what would you do with the card number? Some tickets can also be collected by any card, so you've no idea who bought them. TVMs are operated by TOCs, not RDG.