Not sure I'm posting this in the right place - Mods feel free to relocate it.
Respect to the RPO on the lovely LNER 10:02 Azuma York to KGX on 24 January - yesterday. Not a crowded train and all going well until he came up against a student from the Far East with not a great deal of English. She had a ticket discounted with a Student Railcard which she had on her phone but which is not acceptable - it needs to held in original hard copy. He asked for a form of ID, she claimed to have none. He pointed out that failure to have a valid card meant that the full walk-up fare needed to be paid. She understood enough to offer to pay the difference between discounted and full fare, which the RPO declined, very politely.
The exchanges continued for some miles. She kept offering to pay the difference, he politely but firmly insisted on ID or pay up. At Doncaster he suggested putting her off the train and into the hands of BTP, which focused her mind a bit more. Her story varied between leaving the country for good (thereby making a prosecution pretty much impossible) and returning to York for graduation (in January?). She claimed to have no ID on her, not even bank cards - cue the RPO asking which part of the world didn't use bank cards to pay for things.
Eventually, the RPO's polite persistence bore fruit and she produced bank cards to prove her ID but, with no prospect of a succesful prosecution, he wanted his money for the full fare - she had lied to him with the intention of benefitting from fraud.
Game over, she offered to pay him - which she did with cash, lovely new notes! He took a photo of the card on her phone which she had tried to use - I assume that will be subject to investigation or blocked, he issued a ticket and receipt and was on his way.
I know some RPOs on some routes get a hard time, but this chap was persistent, punctilious and hugely patient and it's good to balance some of the criticism they get. I may have confused some of the sequence and details but the principle remains - a good guy.
Respect to the RPO on the lovely LNER 10:02 Azuma York to KGX on 24 January - yesterday. Not a crowded train and all going well until he came up against a student from the Far East with not a great deal of English. She had a ticket discounted with a Student Railcard which she had on her phone but which is not acceptable - it needs to held in original hard copy. He asked for a form of ID, she claimed to have none. He pointed out that failure to have a valid card meant that the full walk-up fare needed to be paid. She understood enough to offer to pay the difference between discounted and full fare, which the RPO declined, very politely.
The exchanges continued for some miles. She kept offering to pay the difference, he politely but firmly insisted on ID or pay up. At Doncaster he suggested putting her off the train and into the hands of BTP, which focused her mind a bit more. Her story varied between leaving the country for good (thereby making a prosecution pretty much impossible) and returning to York for graduation (in January?). She claimed to have no ID on her, not even bank cards - cue the RPO asking which part of the world didn't use bank cards to pay for things.
Eventually, the RPO's polite persistence bore fruit and she produced bank cards to prove her ID but, with no prospect of a succesful prosecution, he wanted his money for the full fare - she had lied to him with the intention of benefitting from fraud.
Game over, she offered to pay him - which she did with cash, lovely new notes! He took a photo of the card on her phone which she had tried to use - I assume that will be subject to investigation or blocked, he issued a ticket and receipt and was on his way.
I know some RPOs on some routes get a hard time, but this chap was persistent, punctilious and hugely patient and it's good to balance some of the criticism they get. I may have confused some of the sequence and details but the principle remains - a good guy.