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When using an advance ticket, do you have to use it EXACTLY as specified....

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billbogg

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Your right not to have fines levied by any other authority than that of the legal authorities is an absolute right . It is almost certainly in statute law that means Magna Carta ,Bill of rights etc. That right cannot be overuled by any other authority. Tesco & SWT are not the law. they must conform to laws set by a legal authority so you would be within your rights not to pay the fine.
 
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yorkie

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Your right not to have fines levied by any other authority than that of the legal authorities is an absolute right . It is almost certainly in statute law that means Magna Carta ,Bill of rights etc. That right cannot be overuled by any other authority. Tesco & SWT are not the law. they must conform to laws set by a legal authority so you would be within your rights not to pay the fine.
I agree, but there is one slight flaw! The problem is that they say it's not a fine; it's a fare. You could then argue in court that it's really a fine dressed up as a fare. But you'd need a good, and experienced lawyer to do that. I have no idea what the chances of success would be. I personally wouldn't recommend this unless you had some cash to splash on the principle.
 

EM2

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So what about the fine for things like improper use of the communication cord? Isn't that a fine levied by another authority? I notice it is worded as a 'penalty', so does that mean it *isn't* a fine?
 

Anvil1984

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Your right not to have fines levied by any other authority than that of the legal authorities is an absolute right . It is almost certainly in statute law that means Magna Carta ,Bill of rights etc. That right cannot be overuled by any other authority. Tesco & SWT are not the law. they must conform to laws set by a legal authority so you would be within your rights not to pay the fine.


The Secretary of State for Transport raised the charge for a Penalty Fare to a minimum of £20 effective from 3 May 2005 in accordance with the "Railways (Penalty Fares) (Amended) Regulations 2005".

Therefore the Penalty Fares as they are, are set by the government and not SWT or any other TOC
 

ralphchadkirk

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Your right not to have fines levied by any other authority than that of the legal authorities is an absolute right . It is almost certainly in statute law that means Magna Carta ,Bill of rights etc. That right cannot be overuled by any other authority. Tesco & SWT are not the law. they must conform to laws set by a legal authority so you would be within your rights not to pay the fine.
So you don't know whether it is or not then?
 

Ferret

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Your right not to have fines levied by any other authority than that of the legal authorities is an absolute right . It is almost certainly in statute law that means Magna Carta ,Bill of rights etc. That right cannot be overuled by any other authority. Tesco & SWT are not the law. they must conform to laws set by a legal authority so you would be within your rights not to pay the fine.

These posts really do represent some of the most ill-informed claptrap I've ever read on here:(
 

SouthernCDiv

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They broke Railway laws/rules and got caught, how many times had they 'got away with it' ?
Why buy a ticket to Southampton if you live in Eastleigh? unles you plan to defraud the TOC?

Megatrain is quite clear on the rules!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Yorkie - while I'm not overly comfortable about SWT charging a PF in this case, you could argue that they were entitled to.

From the SWT site :-

If you are travelling from a penalty fare station on a penalty fare train, and:

a)

You do not have a valid ticket and are approached by a revenue protection employee, who is an authorised penalty fare collector you may be liable to a penalty fare of £20 or twice the full single fare - whichever is the greater amount to the next station at which your train stops.


Now, we know of the exceptions regarding being off route or travelling outside of validity in terms of time, but neither exception applies here. They were having a BoJ in effect which wasn't permitted by the T&Cs they'd agreed to, thereby invalidating the ticket.

To me, the excess fare idea is a non-starter as it surely can't be possible to excess from a Megatrain ticket to the SOS.

Was it morally right for them to be chinged 114 quid? Probably not. Were the SWT RPIs acting within their remit? I rather fear they were:(


Twice the full single fare, £57, 2 of them, thus £114, don't cheat the railway, you'll end up getting caught, BUT 'if' they had done it many times before, which reading some accounts they had, then £114 overall may still have been cheaper than they would have paid over time
 

yorkie

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They broke Railway laws/rules and got caught, how many times had they 'got away with it' ?
Not really. They broke Megatrain rules.
Why buy a ticket to Southampton if you live in Eastleigh? unles you plan to defraud the TOC?
If I go to Waterloo and ask for a ticket to Southampton, I can legitimately get off at Eastleigh, and this is not defrauding anyone. Do you deny that?

(Yes I know that is not related to Megatrain, I am purely responding to your quote above)

I often buy tickets to places that I don't actually go to, because it gives extra validity. There's nothing wrong with that, but your quote suggests there is. Yes, on Megatrain there is, but your quote needs to be challenged because anyone reading that may think that getting off 'short' is against the railway "laws/rules".

If the TOC felt they were being defrauded, why didn't they prosecute?
Megatrain is quite clear on the rules!
Have you read Anvil1984's posts? What do you have to say about that?


Twice the full single fare, £57, 2 of them, thus £114, don't cheat the railway, you'll end up getting caught,
Are Penalty Fares intended for "cheats"? Your post suggests that it is. You may wish to re-consider this comment, or are you admitting that the PF system is, in fact, used as a way to punish and fine people through the backdoor, masquerading as a fare?

If someone employed by Southern said that in an official capacity, the customers should start talking to their solicitor about that...
BUT 'if' they had done it many times before, which reading some accounts they had, then £114 overall may still have been cheaper than they would have paid over time
Cheaper than what? It would cost them around £9 each to do the journey legitimately via Southampton, to Eastleigh. That's a lot of times...
 

Ferret

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Are Penalty Fares intended for "cheats"? Your post suggests that it is. You may wish to re-consider this comment, or are you admitting that the PF system is, in fact, used as a way to punish and fine people through the backdoor, masquerading as a fare?

You already know the answer to that. I bet a whole load of PFs handed out at New St (for example) could really be dealt with by MG11s.
 

yorksrob

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They broke Railway laws/rules and got caught, how many times had they 'got away with it' ?
Why buy a ticket to Southampton if you live in Eastleigh? unles you plan to defraud the TOC?

Because a bunch of here today, gone tomorrow private operators have decided to deliberately disadvantage one bunch of their customers for no logical reason (and by logical I mean, being a railway, one would expect there to be some sort of distance related dimension to the fares structure) in favour of another.

Put simply, I suspect the residents of Eastleigh regard the situation as rather unfair. Being that they live a shorter distance from London than Southampton, and unlike with the majority of advanced fare regimes, where they would at least have a chance of obtaining one of the cheaper fares if they got in quick enough, they are excluded from these fares and have decided that they are not going to stand for it.
 

Greenback

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I suspect they feel hard done by too, but I wonder how many of them were in favour of getting rid of 'deeply inefficient' British Rail and the huge new benefits that privatisation would bring? Such as the opportunity to buy a £6 ticket and then have to pay £57 when you break the conditions!
 

yorksrob

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I suspect they feel hard done by too, but I wonder how many of them were in favour of getting rid of 'deeply inefficient' British Rail and the huge new benefits that privatisation would bring? Such as the opportunity to buy a £6 ticket and then have to pay £57 when you break the conditions!

Ha ha indeed, To be fair, there are many private companies who make a good effort on the railways and do well, and indeed South West Trains has its good points. But this seems to be an example of taking the market approach too far for a public service. I wonder if the residents of Eastleigh do remember the politically motivated lies about "deeply inefficient" British Rail that were peddled at the time.
 
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