Buying ticket after boarding but before scheduled departure time.

[BingMan]

If I do that would I be liable to a penalty fare?

 

[AlterEgo]

If I do that would I be liable to a penalty fare?

No, but you would be liable to prosecution under the letter of the law. In practice you would only be reported if your ticket was purchased after departure time.

 

[WesternLancer]

In practice are tickets actually checked before a train gets underway? Even if it’s stood in platform for some time with doors unlocked and people on it whose tickets can be checked.

Staff usually would not want to miss checking the tickets of any passengers boarding at the very last minute I would think.

 

[GadgetMan]

If I do that would I be liable to a penalty fare?

No, but you leave yourself open to joining the "I tried to buy a ticket before departure time but it wouldn't go through for x, y, z reason/excuse. I bought it as soon as I could, but 30 secs later a ticket inspection took place.................." prosecution thread club.

 

[1D54]

In practice are tickets actually checked before a train gets underway?

Tickets were done 15 minutes before departure time on the 12:46 Nottm - Skegness service today.

 

[Cuthbert]

In practice are tickets actually checked before a train gets underway? Even if it’s stood in platform for some time with doors unlocked and people on it whose tickets can be checked.

Staff usually would not want to miss checking the tickets of any passengers boarding at the very last minute I would think.

The Walsall P3 local and Wolves P5 local I have seen revenue go through 5-10mins before departure checking tickets.

At Walsall they will be sent back to the ticket office to buy a ticket.

Those at Wolves will be questioned on how they got pass the barriers without a ticket if the barriers are in operation.

 

[Lemmy99uk]

Also, the penalty fare FAQs on the National Rail site say:

‘Your ticket can be checked at any time – before, during and at the end of your journey.’

 

[reb0118]

Staff usually would not want to miss checking the tickets of any passengers boarding at the very last minute I would think.

I regularly try to check tickets, wherever practicable, prior to departure. I then only have to find the late boarders before the next stop.

 

[WesternLancer]

The Walsall P3 local and Wolves P5 local I have seen revenue go through 5-10mins before departure checking tickets.

At Walsall they will be sent back to the ticket office to buy a ticket.

Those at Wolves will be questioned on how they got pass the barriers without a ticket if the barriers are in operation.

Informative to read!

I regularly try to check tickets, wherever practicable, prior to departure. I then only have to find the late boarders before the next stop.

Thanks!

 

[Hadders]

If I do that would I be liable to a penalty fare?

Legally speaking you are required to be in a possesion of a ticket for your journey before you board the train. There are some exceptions to this:

• If there isn't a ticket office or ticket machine at the station where you start your journey then you can board the train and purchase at the earliest opportuinity (which might be onboard, at an interchange station (if there is sufficient time) or at your destination
• If the ticket machine does not accept your chosen method of payment. In certain areas of the country (generally Northern Rail) if you intend to pay with cash then you must obtain a Promise to Pay voucher from the ticket machine and present this when paying with cash
• If the ticket you wish to purchase is not available from the ticket machine
• Note - there is no requirement to use a smartphone app to purchase a ticket but there is a requirement to use a station ticket machine if there is one and you need to buy a ticket

 

[WirralLine]

I often check tickets at the terminus before departing if I've got time. As said above, it weeds out all the "I've got no money but I'm only going one stop" - you can evict them before leaving. I'll of course happily sell tickets before we leave if no facilities (and those with facilities too sometimes, advising of penalty fares and to buy before boarding etc as i do so). Sometimes I tell people to go to the machine/office and buy them if there is one nearby.

Last time I did it i sold a significant amount of tickets before leaving. I also found a worryingly large number of people on the completely wrong train to the completely wrong destination - which as it was the last train of the night, saved both myself and them a lot of headache by catching this mistake at the origin. At least there they could go and catch their intended train, instead of stranding them overnight somewhere miles away with no services until morning.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks to those who have posted regard my point, staff side, citing their own approach and experience.

I don’t think I’ve experienced this as a passenger but it’ll probably happen next time I’m in that situation

 

[LowLevel]

As a guard trained in the era where you had intensive stopping services without vending machines and e-tickets I regularly check before departure, it's a habit I've always been in. Places like Matlock it's the only way to actually grip the local journeys to Matlock Bath without the succession of tunnels blocking your phone signal

On trains where I might expect issues (first departures from large cities on a Saturday morning for example) I open one door and check as do plenty of others at my depot. Always good to see faces drop at that.

 

[styles]

Strictly speaking it's not permitted but you'd have to find a guard on a particularly bad day to be written up for it, if you did indeed manage to buy a ticket before the train departed or its scheduled departure time at least.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Given that the assumption is that the ticket is being bought online, and to be at the station in time to buy between boarding and departure you must have arrived early, a pragmatic solution would be to buy the ticket on the platform after getting to the station and before getting on the train.

'But what' I hear you cry 'if the weather's foul. And there's no canopy at the station?' I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader...

 

[saismee]

'But what' I hear you cry 'if the weather's foul. And there's no canopy at the station?' I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader...

There will be shelter at the ticket machine... a perfect place to buy one!

 

[Haywain]

There will be shelter at the ticket machine.

Will there? I have seen plenty of ticket machines that are not in shelters.

 

[Cuthbert]

There will be shelter at the ticket machine... a perfect place to buy one!

Many of our TVMs are not under shelter.

 

[saismee]

Will there? I have seen plenty of ticket machines that are not in shelters.

Many of our TVMs are not under shelter.

That's odd, I've never seen an unsheltered TVM... I had always assumed they were in shelter so they aren't so exposed to the weather.

 

[sammyg901]

I must admit I usually do this, board at the terminus (Aylesbury Vale Parkway) and sit at my seat and buy the ticket (LNER app for cashback usually) & pay my parking before we leave. I don't like to buy before travel as if there is any disruption I will travel from Aylesbury and it seems rather pedantic to stand outside in the cold buying it before entering the platform! There aren't many things in life that are certain but I'd say there is absolutely no chance of an RPI doing a pre-departure check from there at 6am and issuing a PF before we've pulled out of the station !

The downside to this approach is once I was distracted by a work call and did forget to buy a ticket AND there was a very rare RPI check. Sounds like a well worn story I know... nice fella though, think he could tell how shocked that I'd forgotten I was and sold me the ticket, though I'd have taken a PF with good grace as I was in the wrong

 

[Bletchleyite]

Theoretically this isn't legal, but in practice you are infinitessimally unlikely to be pulled up for it. I've certainly done it before.