• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Break of journey - what happens if guard signs ticket?

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

ScotGG

Established Member
Joined
3 Apr 2013
Messages
1,375
I'm planning a trip which involves three trains. It's an off peak ticket not an advance. For one of the legs (the intercity route in the middle) I may break the journey en route for an hour or two.

I was wondering if on the main intercity journey the guard marks the ticket? When I get on later to continue the journey will the next guard thinking I've already used it? I know sometimes they stamp with time and date but sometimes it's just a squiggle.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

A

ainsworth74

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
27,637
Location
Redcar
The next guard might think it's been used but it certainly doesn't alter the validity of the ticket and I would expect any reasonable member of staff to accept such an explanation and move on. The only time I would be wary would be if something was written like "used to x" where x was the destination on the ticket. In that case I would ask the guard to amend their scribble! But a scribble or other grip just means that someone has looked at the ticket.
 
B

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,783
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Intermodal said:
Guards completely understand that break of journey is permitted. It is not some 'obscure rule', it is common practice and it will not be questioned.
Click to expand...

Though the railway is full of pig-ignorant, poorly-trained contract security guards used as barrier staff (e.g. Northern), and the OP is right to be concerned about the possibility of them (as distinct from properly trained guards) questioning it. I doubt there will be a problem in this case, though, I've never had one.
 
Y

yorkie

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Administrator
Joined
6 Jun 2005
Messages
67,744
Location
Yorkshire
ScotGG said:
I'm planning a trip which involves three trains. It's an off peak ticket not an advance. For one of the legs (the intercity route in the middle) I may break the journey en route for an hour or two.

I was wondering if on the main intercity journey the guard marks the ticket? When I get on later to continue the journey will the next guard thinking I've already used it? I know sometimes they stamp with time and date but sometimes it's just a squiggle.
Click to expand...
All that means is you started your journey; you can break it as many times as you want within the validity period and terms of the ticket.

I've had problems breaking my journey at stations, but I can only recall one issue on a train, and that was back in the days when Off Peak Returns were called Savers.
 
Intermodal

Intermodal

Established Member
Joined
3 Nov 2010
Messages
1,255
Location
I wonder how long I can make my location on this f
Bletchleyite said:
Though the railway is full of pig-ignorant, poorly-trained contract security guards used as barrier staff (e.g. Northern), and the OP is right to be concerned about the possibility of them (as distinct from properly trained guards) questioning it. I doubt there will be a problem in this case, though, I've never had one.
Click to expand...
A very valid point.
 
B

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,783
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Intermodal said:
A very valid point.
Click to expand...

I also forgot to mention the famous issue of the Euston barrier staff (who are railway employees), who would seemingly reject something as simple as an unused Anytime Single to Manchester purchased 5 minutes earlier at Euston itself at times. Though if it's a break where you'd have to change station anyway it's basically undetectable so in this case it would not be an issue.
 
B

Bookd

Member
Joined
27 Aug 2015
Messages
445
I can't understand these days why guards mark a ticket with a scrawl which is meaningless to anyone else.
If some can have a time and date stamp (or at least one that shows the train running number) why can't this be universal?
 
B

Bletchleyite

Veteran Member
Joined
20 Oct 2014
Messages
97,783
Location
"Marston Vale mafia"
Bookd said:
I can't understand these days why guards mark a ticket with a scrawl which is meaningless to anyone else.
If some can have a time and date stamp (or at least one that shows the train running number) why can't this be universal?
Click to expand...

Because they cost a fair bit of money - over a hundred quid I believe, whereas biros are 10p.

It will all be replaced with scanning barcodes soon enough, anyway, and that records even better information to look at and see what the passenger has done.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top