Atherstone and London Midland

[38Cto15E]

Is it OK to board a London Midland service at Atherstone without a ticket and pay on board without being penalised?
Atherstone has a ticket mchine on the up platform but nothing on the down side.
To get from the up to down side you have to leave the station and walk by public road under the railway, the footbridge has now been removed.

TIA

 

[Pumbaa]

It is a PF area. In practice, guards will sell discounted fares on board on Trent Valley services.

 

[yorkie]

According to the National Rail site for [stn]ATH[/stn] Penalty Fares apply which means "by the book" it is compulsory to buy before boarding if there are facilities to do so.

However they are required to show discretion for people with reduced mobility.

Perhaps you could call Customer Services and see what they say in practice. The best number to use appears to be 0121 634 2040

 

[maniacmartin]

0844 811 0133 (or 0121 634 2040 if you want to use inclusive minutes from a mobile phone)

Even from a landline with no inclusive minutes, 0844 will cost more!

 

[38Cto15E]

I did a little trip from Atherstone last week, parking's free and the fares are OK, but here is why I asked the question.

In the car park (up side) is a ticket machine but I couldn't find Stafford on it, time was marching on and it takes a few minutes to walk around so I thought that I would buy my ticket on the train.
A student later came onto the down platform and I asked her if it was OK to buy the ticket on the train which she confirmed was OK.
Between Atherstone and Stafford, no ticket check. !

As I was just going to take a few snaps then return to Atherstone I didn't fancy going towards the station exit, the train had a few minutes there so I went toward the back cab and asked the guard (or whatever the job title is)of my train if I could buy a ticket from him.
He told me I could but he hadn't been through the train because his battery was almost flat on his machine.
I duly handed over my £4.15 and everyone was happy.
On my return from Stafford, again no ticket check before Atherstone.
This tale just shows the potential for many things to go wrong, fortunately it all went OK and no confrontations.

 

[paul1609]

Is it OK to board a London Midland service at Atherstone without a ticket and pay on board without being penalised?
Atherstone has a ticket mchine on the up platform but nothing on the down side.
To get from the up to down side you have to leave the station and walk by public road under the railway, the footbridge has now been removed.

TIA

Im the Engineering Officer for HMS Atherstone and I didnt realise we had a station named after us, let alone one with a ticket machine!

 

[calc7]

Im the Engineering Officer for HMS Atherstone and I didnt realise we had a station named after us, let alone one with a ticket machine!

Any chance it could be your ship and the station both named after the town?

 

[paul1609]

Any chance it could be your ship and the station both named after the town?

Actually the ships being Hunt Class Minecounter measure vessels were named after foxhunts. Probably wouldnt be deemed politically correct by the mod these days!

 

[dvboy]

The hunt being named after the town.