ValleyLines142
Established Member
Good morning,
Just after a bit of advice for a friend; whilst I am a very regular traveller myself, I'm not too strong on the disputes and prosecutions side of matters!
My friend was in Bristol coming home from uni a few weeks back, she lives in Abercynon and she got a bus from UWE Frenchay to Bristol Parkway. She was on the bus stop at UWE at 6pm waiting to catch the 6.10pm bus to Parkway station. She usually walks to Parkway, which is possible in 20-25 minutes, but it was raining and she had a lot of stuff so opted to get the bus.
The bus in question was over twenty minutes late because of an accident on the ring road outside of UWE. Because of the delay getting in and out of uni, she arrived two minutes before her train to Cardiff was due to depart (18.41). As she got off the bus, she saw the train pulling in to the station and ran up to the barriers and asked whether she could buy a ticket on board the train. The gateline staff at Bristol Parkway refused and she had to wait for the next train (19.12). Apparently the member of staff in question was not particularly pleasant either, but I advised my friend to take that up as a separate matter if she wishes.
I realise that GWR cannot be held accountable for heavy traffic conditions, but surely a bit of leniency wouldn't have gone amiss here? It is impossible to evade a fare (not that my friend is that type to do so anyway), as there are ticket barriers in operation at Cardiff Central and even if there was no opportunity to buy a ticket on the Swansea train, she would have gone to the UPF window at Cardiff to purchase her ticket on to Abercynon as she would have had a fifteen minute gap at Cardiff.
She was due to arrive at Abercynon at 20.20, but didn't arrive until 21.04. I wonder if this could be taken as delay repay. She'd left Abercynon at 6.30 that morning to get to uni, so understandably she was very tired!
By contrast, I had a similar situation in Newport the other day and I was allowed on to the platform immediately.
I am all for cracking down on fare evasion, as I have seen plenty of fare evaders hide in the toilets or got away with saying they've travelled from a later station in order to get a cheaper fare, and in some extreme cases I've seen young ones run off the end of platforms and up embankments to avoid inspectors. But I do feel that sometimes it is the honest people that end up being screwed over.
Thank you for reading.
Just after a bit of advice for a friend; whilst I am a very regular traveller myself, I'm not too strong on the disputes and prosecutions side of matters!
My friend was in Bristol coming home from uni a few weeks back, she lives in Abercynon and she got a bus from UWE Frenchay to Bristol Parkway. She was on the bus stop at UWE at 6pm waiting to catch the 6.10pm bus to Parkway station. She usually walks to Parkway, which is possible in 20-25 minutes, but it was raining and she had a lot of stuff so opted to get the bus.
The bus in question was over twenty minutes late because of an accident on the ring road outside of UWE. Because of the delay getting in and out of uni, she arrived two minutes before her train to Cardiff was due to depart (18.41). As she got off the bus, she saw the train pulling in to the station and ran up to the barriers and asked whether she could buy a ticket on board the train. The gateline staff at Bristol Parkway refused and she had to wait for the next train (19.12). Apparently the member of staff in question was not particularly pleasant either, but I advised my friend to take that up as a separate matter if she wishes.
I realise that GWR cannot be held accountable for heavy traffic conditions, but surely a bit of leniency wouldn't have gone amiss here? It is impossible to evade a fare (not that my friend is that type to do so anyway), as there are ticket barriers in operation at Cardiff Central and even if there was no opportunity to buy a ticket on the Swansea train, she would have gone to the UPF window at Cardiff to purchase her ticket on to Abercynon as she would have had a fifteen minute gap at Cardiff.
She was due to arrive at Abercynon at 20.20, but didn't arrive until 21.04. I wonder if this could be taken as delay repay. She'd left Abercynon at 6.30 that morning to get to uni, so understandably she was very tired!
By contrast, I had a similar situation in Newport the other day and I was allowed on to the platform immediately.
I am all for cracking down on fare evasion, as I have seen plenty of fare evaders hide in the toilets or got away with saying they've travelled from a later station in order to get a cheaper fare, and in some extreme cases I've seen young ones run off the end of platforms and up embankments to avoid inspectors. But I do feel that sometimes it is the honest people that end up being screwed over.
Thank you for reading.