Wrong train

[furlong]

.

And told me to pay a penalty of which I refused and that made him fill out my details and gave me a witness statement.To add to this there were no announcements at the station and the board wasn’t displaying the train schedules but it displayed ( engineering works may affect your travel )

So even if you don't want to send in a complaint yet, make your own written notes about all these things now so that you don't forget any of them. If they take it further, they would only have to prove you didn't have a valid ticket - something that would be easy - whereas you would have to prove this only happened because of their own mistakes and putting that argument together could involve quite a lot of effort on your part.

 

[Haywain]

And told me to pay a penalty of which I refused

That's a pity, as a Penalty Fare would have been much easier to deal with. However, I suspect that a clear explanation when you receive a letter from GTR should be enough to resolve the issue.

 

[Snow1964]

What made me feel really bad was when the inspector told me he doesn’t believe me without doing any checks ...... that made him fill out my details and gave me a witness statement

If the witness statement correctly recorded the facts, with Op saying about skipped stops, they could also check that your train skipped stops and you had to take another one.

Clearly Op didn't hear any announcements (says so), the platform screen was displaying engineering work message. The only other possible do not join this train was the on train destination displays.

Were the on train displays displaying a clear warning of not stopping. Or were they blatantly misleading. Some people seem to forget they are there to convey correct information to those with hearing problems (doesn't apply to Op), but that's not the point, there is another thread in same part of world about wheelchair user struggling to board because disabilities are being treated as not worth making adjustments for.

 

[Haywain]

Neither did the person who sent out the penalty letter, because if the witness statement correctly recorded the facts, they could also have checked that your train skipped stops and you had to take another one.

Something is badly wrong if letters are going out, saying opposite version of events to witness statements and no one is fact checking which is correct.

Clearly Op didn't hear any announcements (says so), the platform screen was displaying engineering work message. The only other possible do not join this train was the on train destination displays. Were they displaying a clear warning of not stopping.

The OP has not yet received a letter.

 

[MikeWh]

The OP has not yet received a letter.

Indeed. It is possible that when the office get the report they will realise what has happened and take no further action.

 

[Starmill]

But the OP said they actively tried to, but were unable to find one.
In any case we have seen many recent cases where a traveller approaches a staff member for advice (sometimes in preference to just leaving the station), only for this "Customer Assistant" to penalise them regardless.

I agree with you 100% I'm just trying to be realistic about how a prosecution manager would put it. Hopefully though none of that comes into it, and once GTR are aware the train's stops were cancelled they'll confirm that no further action is to be taken. They may do this without contacting the OP. That could leave them worried, but it wouldn't penalise them otherwise.

So you expect them to keep records of each announcement they make?

Yes. Automatic announcements are able to be checked later if they played or not and when.

The OP has been over-carried, delayed, inconvenienced, publicly accused of an offence, stressed, and obliged to spend time trying to remedy this consequence of the TOC's late running. And the best outcome the OP can expect is not to be punished???

The OP is also entitled to compensation for the delay, but that won't be very much. In any case if they claim through Delay Repay it wouldn't be more than the price of their ticket.

 

[MikeWh]

In any case if they claim through Delay Repay it wouldn't be more than the price of their ticket.

Checking realtime trains, the original train should have got in at 12:54 and the return from Finsbury Park arrived at 14:09, so over an hour delay.

 

[MrJeeves]

It's worth grabbing screenshots of the full length of the RTT page to refer back to later, should you need to do so. The pages will vanish after a week, you see.

As long as you know the link, they won't (at least not in any reasonable time period). You just can't search for services older than a week.

Here's one from September which still works: https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:Y52090/2023-09-12/detailed

 

[30907]

What made me feel really bad was when the inspector told me he doesn’t believe me without doing any checks.

TBF there was no reason for him to have known about the skip-stopping train, and short-faring on that route appears (from this forum alone) to be common, which explains his suspicion. But he should have checked.

Thanks for clarifying your journey details - once you were on the train you clearly took the right actions in returning immediately.

 

[Krokodil]

TBF there was no reason for him to have known about the skip-stopping train

Do Thameslink RPIs not get emails from control like guards at other TOCs do? If a passenger mentions that they were disrupted it's so easy to scroll back and check.

 

[Starmill]

Do Thameslink RPIs not get emails from control like guards at other TOCs do? If a passenger mentions that they were disrupted it's so easy to scroll back and check.

Hard to believe they don't have access to the live running messages somehow. Even if they couldn't they could have actually looked at the live departures themselves and it would have shown in the national rail enquiries app.

 

[DeverseSam]

…I usually buy a ticket with return

It sounds like the OP might benefit from the forum experts” fare advice eg finding a season ticket to protect against the consequences of the exceptions to the “usually”

 

[Somewhere]

Indeed. It is possible that when the office get the report they will realise what has happened and take no further action.

GTR aren't that good. There's no process in place for the revenue department to check these things

 

[spag23]

Were the on train displays displaying a clear warning of not stopping.

But by time the OP was in a position to see the on train display, he/she was already trapped on the non-stopping train.

 

[jfollows]

I attach the train details as a PDF also, just as an additional safeguard.

 

[30907]

Do Thameslink RPIs not get emails from control like guards at other TOCs do? If a passenger mentions that they were disrupted it's so easy to scroll back and check.

I agree - but the RPI still needs to come out of suspicion mode AND make the connection between that train and the situation.

It sounds like the OP might benefit from the forum experts” fare advice eg finding a season ticket to protect against the consequences of the exceptions to the “usually”

I didn’t take "usually" as an admission of fare evasion.

 

[SickyNicky]

And an alternative view of the data is here, http://timetablehistory.com/times.aspx?uid=Y52090&date=20231116, which clearly shows the stops were planned and then cancelled on the day.