Taken from this article
Is this enforceable? I don't want this thread to be about the behaviour of the RPIs - that's been discussed already - but ATW's policy on fines if you don't have a ticket, and valid reasons for not having a ticket - is completely different to their policy on ticket less travel since 2003.
Do ATW really expect passengers to go and knock on the rear cab of the train to buy a ticket before they take a seat? So there'll regularly be long lines of people down the carriage waiting to buy a ticket at the rear cab booking office? What if you find yourself on a double Pacer / Pacer + 150 and the guard is in a different unit?
And what counts as a 'genuine error'? ATW seem to have made it pretty clear. Your opportunities to buy a ticket are: 1) Ticket office at station or TVM, 2) from the guard on the train, 3) or get fined. All stations with barriers have the opportunity to buy a ticket after you've left the train but before you can get through the barriers - and if the guard doesn't come round and I know I'm getting off at a barriered station - I will get the cash ready to pay when I get off - but recently there have been reports of people getting fined when alighting at barrierred stations and not getting the chance to buy a ticket to get through the barriers.
ATW are doing their best to turn the S Wales travelling public against them as the franchise draws to an end. No TOC would start a franchise with these bullying tactics so why end one like it?
Wales Online said:Arriva Trains Wales customer services director Lynne Milligan said the fines were an effective deterrent to make sure that passengers pay for their tickets and limit the company’s losses.
She said: “We have done our own estimates at revenue lost – and it varies by time of day – but it’s about 7% of journeys.
“It is hard to work out what that costs us but it will be in the millions of pounds every year.”
Ms Milligan said that fines were supposed to act as a deterrent.
She said: “Enforcement is important because it is about deterring people who think they can get away with travelling without a valid ticket.
“People should read about fines and think ‘I’m not going to be caught out, I’m going to buy a ticket’.”
Ms Milligan said people must buy a ticket at the first possible opportunity to avoid getting a fine.
“It’s really important that people buy a ticket at the earliest opportunity they can – not sit passively and wait until they are asked,” she said.
“That could mean buying it on our app, at a station, from a machine or by going to see a conductor when you first get on a train.
“There is a conductor on every train and they are visible – so you should actively make your way to the conductor."
The customer services chief admitted there are some people who don’t have a valid ticket for totally innocent reasons – and said Arriva’s policy doesn’t go after them.
“If someone is stopped by one of our revenue inspectors they follow a checklist, and if someone has made a genuine error they will let people go,” she said.
“But if the explanation isn’t innocent then you’ll get caught and you’ll have to pay a fine.”
Is this enforceable? I don't want this thread to be about the behaviour of the RPIs - that's been discussed already - but ATW's policy on fines if you don't have a ticket, and valid reasons for not having a ticket - is completely different to their policy on ticket less travel since 2003.
Do ATW really expect passengers to go and knock on the rear cab of the train to buy a ticket before they take a seat? So there'll regularly be long lines of people down the carriage waiting to buy a ticket at the rear cab booking office? What if you find yourself on a double Pacer / Pacer + 150 and the guard is in a different unit?
And what counts as a 'genuine error'? ATW seem to have made it pretty clear. Your opportunities to buy a ticket are: 1) Ticket office at station or TVM, 2) from the guard on the train, 3) or get fined. All stations with barriers have the opportunity to buy a ticket after you've left the train but before you can get through the barriers - and if the guard doesn't come round and I know I'm getting off at a barriered station - I will get the cash ready to pay when I get off - but recently there have been reports of people getting fined when alighting at barrierred stations and not getting the chance to buy a ticket to get through the barriers.
ATW are doing their best to turn the S Wales travelling public against them as the franchise draws to an end. No TOC would start a franchise with these bullying tactics so why end one like it?