Trainline Spit ticket - Rail Fine

2stixoftwixes

My son has just come back from the Reading festival and travelled from Southampton to Reading on the train

He bought his ticket last week using his Trainline App and obviously booked a train there and back

The journey out was direct (last Thursday) The return journey (today) that he booked was part of Trainlines split save scheme where he had to change at Basingstoke it came up cheaper for 2 tickets

Last night his group decided that instead of catching the 10 a.m. Reading train back (that was originally booked) they would stay awake and catch the earliest train back which left Reading at 5.40am 

All was fine until he got to Eastleigh when an inspector looked at the ticket and fined him £40 because he was on the wrong train

I have looked at the tickets he bought

The outward journey was an advance single
The return journey was an Off-Peak Day Single which according to National Rail

"Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets do not require you to travel on a specific train, only at certain times. So, if your outward travel date remains the same you might not need to pay an additional fare  on a bank holiday is off-peak all-day."

However

Due to trainlines splitsave ticket that was issued
the return ticket was actually

Reading to Basingstoke Off-Peak Day Single
Basingstoke to Southampton Advance Single

which meant the first half of the journey he could have caught any train, but the 2nd half he had to use the ticket he originally bought

if he hadn't of bought split save on the recommendation of trainline to "save money" he would have been clear

I know this is a buyer beware and read the small print scenario, but this is a 16 year old who had paid full adult fare and who was really scared by the inspector's manner (also very tired)  and didn't realise the 2nd part of the ticket was different from the 1st

Do I have any recourse here?

daveyjp

No recourse as he bought the tickets.

Its another example of why Trainline should be avoided.

martindow

Even if it had been a day single, wouldn't there still have been a problem as he was travelling the following day as the date on the ticket would not have matched the date of travel?

t0rt0ise

martindow said:

Even if it had been a day single, wouldn't there still have been a problem as he was travelling the following day as the date on the ticket would not have matched the date of travel?

According to the OP he was catching an earlier train the same day.

martindow

t0rt0ise said:

martindow said:

Even if it had been a day single, wouldn't there still have been a problem as he was travelling the following day as the date on the ticket would not have matched the date of travel?

According to the OP he was catching an earlier train the same day.

You're quite right.  I skimmed through and assumed they had decided to stay overnight and travel the following day.