All Line Rover
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- Joined
- 17 Feb 2011
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Transport Focus published a case study in January 2016 regarding a passenger who 'intended' (which may well have been genuine) to purchase a ticket from the guard during an 8 minute journey on a London Midland train from Crewe to Alsager (a small, unstaffed station with no ticket purchasing facilities). The passenger was charged a Penalty Fare. London Midland refused Transport Focus' request to refund the Penalty Fare, leaving Transport Focus "disappointed".
I have two questions about this:
(1) I was under the impression that all stations on routes charging Penalty Fares are required to have ticket purchasing facilities. How can Alsager not have ticket purchasing facilities? All it requires is a TVM on each of its two platforms.
(2) London Midland guards tend to allow passengers to purchase tickets (sometimes even Railcard-discounted tickets) on-board, regardless of whether the passenger boarded at a station with ticket purchasing facilities. How can London Midland justify this lack of consistency? I feel that Penalty Fares should always be charged, unless a passenger is making a connection from a long distance service to a short distance service (which they may not have purchased a ticket for in advance because of the high likelihood of the long distance service being late) at an interchange station (such as Crewe) and informs the guard on the short distance service before the train departs of their need to purchase a ticket.
I have two questions about this:
(1) I was under the impression that all stations on routes charging Penalty Fares are required to have ticket purchasing facilities. How can Alsager not have ticket purchasing facilities? All it requires is a TVM on each of its two platforms.
(2) London Midland guards tend to allow passengers to purchase tickets (sometimes even Railcard-discounted tickets) on-board, regardless of whether the passenger boarded at a station with ticket purchasing facilities. How can London Midland justify this lack of consistency? I feel that Penalty Fares should always be charged, unless a passenger is making a connection from a long distance service to a short distance service (which they may not have purchased a ticket for in advance because of the high likelihood of the long distance service being late) at an interchange station (such as Crewe) and informs the guard on the short distance service before the train departs of their need to purchase a ticket.