i have been using northern trains every week for last few years. I have a disabled rail card for discount. I have around a year back learnt I can still buy a ticket at the lower rate using my rail card on the train. So I have started doing this, but yesterday the conductor was going to charge me £10.50 which is the cost with railcard before 9am or 8.30 or whenever the higher rate is. I asked why it was that much as it was normally £8.90 at that time. She then said ok she would change it to £8.90 but said the train companies were clamping down on people buying tickets on train and i wouldn’t be able to get discount on train anymore. Now if I didn’t get discount the cost would be more than £10.50 so I’m wondering if she was just trying to over charge or if she hadn’t changed the time to the later time as this was 9.05 train so the first train with lower price of the day.
If you are unable to buy the ticket at the station, for example if the ticket office is inaccessible or closed and your disability prevents you using the ticket machine, or if the ticket machine doesn't accept your chosen payment method, then you are entitled to the appropriate fare, with discounts on the train.
If you chose to buy the ticket on board when facilities were usable and available and there was no notice or other publication inviting you to buy on board, you are not entitled to the full range of fares and are not entitled to use a railcard discount.
I think I’ve traveled on train before with a off peak ticket in peak time not deliberately as I’m not even sure off peak times in day but have got train at most times in afternoon and none have ever said anything about it being off peak ticket.
If you travel on a time restricted ticket at a barred time, then staff are entitled to charge you an excess fare, priced at the difference between the fare paid and the fare due (including any Railcard discounts, where applicable).
However in practice staff
may not notice that a restricted ticket is held, and/or they
may decide that the excess fare isn't worth it as it can be time consuming to issue one for a small amount which may reduce the time available to issue tickets to passengers who require a ticket from unstaffed stations.