Parham Wood
Member
- Joined
- 13 Jun 2011
- Messages
- 331
Could not find a thread specifically on this. Please move if required. Apologise for bit a long post.
This weekend I travelled from Bath to Conwy via Newport. (Excellent journey, on time and all working throughout). On the Newport -Chester via Hereford train one person had an advance ticket but had through their own error missed their train. They boarded the next train (Newport or Cardiff I think) but had to pay c £85 for a new ticket. The ticket collector apologised for this but said she could get off at Hereford, go to the ticket office an pay £10 to have the ticket validated on another service. (Not sure how she could have got past the ticket barrier with an invalid ticket). She declined this as it would mean getting a later train.
On the same train another man had problems getting through the ticket barrier at Newport (I think as barriers at Cardiff would be manned). There was no member of staff around for a while (several minutes I understand) and in consequence he missed his booked train. He would not have done this if the barrier had worked. The station staff told him to" speak to the guard on the next train". He boarded the train and waited until the guard came around on his ticket round. Again the guard apologised for having to ask him to pay around £56 and said he should have gone to the ticket office and for £10 he could get the next train. The man will no doubt make a complaint as he was given incorrect information. He did pay up. I overhead the man talking to a friend on the phone and from the conversation it was apparent he had no idea that he had to contact the guard before boarding. I would have been livid in his situation.
Checking the Arriva Advance fare terms it seems the £10 admin charge is in addition to the price of a ticket to a later train. I am not sure how they work this out but the ticket collector did mention this second charge in both cases, unless it was not applicable at that time of day. However in checking Arriva's Revenue Enforcement Policy it seems that they will give the passenger the opportunity to buy a ticket on the train if they do not have the correct ticket and only move to the enforcement if they refuse. So this is a good approach.
In neither case did the ticket collector tell the passenger about what would happen if they did not buy a ticket. To some extent this was not required as both bought tickets but one passenger was taking some time to think about what she would do and I wonder if he would have said anything about this if a passenger refused. He was a very nice collector though! Is informing about potential prosecution or high cost of settlement mandatory for Arriva staff in this situation as I have not heard it mentioned that it is part of any ticket collector's training.
I was also intrigued that after Shrewsbury where the ticket collector changed, the new one came through the train and said any from Shrewsbury. If I had changed at Shrewsbury and caught this train she would have not known that I had not had my ticket checked. The same thing happened after Crewe. On the plus side good for not disturbing passengers more than once, but on the negative side not good for revenue protection. I changed at Chester and got a Virgin to Llandudno Jnc. No ticket checks. Open barrier and no staff at Llandudno Jnc, and I think also Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. So opportunity to ticket fraud is there for the taking.
In many respects the whole line Newport to Chester seems very relaxed and helpful staff. I was allowed to leave at Chester (full single) to go to the pub across the road whilst waiting for a 90min connection but in the end as pub was very noisy and packed got the first train to Llandudno Jnc and walked to Conwy.
This weekend I travelled from Bath to Conwy via Newport. (Excellent journey, on time and all working throughout). On the Newport -Chester via Hereford train one person had an advance ticket but had through their own error missed their train. They boarded the next train (Newport or Cardiff I think) but had to pay c £85 for a new ticket. The ticket collector apologised for this but said she could get off at Hereford, go to the ticket office an pay £10 to have the ticket validated on another service. (Not sure how she could have got past the ticket barrier with an invalid ticket). She declined this as it would mean getting a later train.
On the same train another man had problems getting through the ticket barrier at Newport (I think as barriers at Cardiff would be manned). There was no member of staff around for a while (several minutes I understand) and in consequence he missed his booked train. He would not have done this if the barrier had worked. The station staff told him to" speak to the guard on the next train". He boarded the train and waited until the guard came around on his ticket round. Again the guard apologised for having to ask him to pay around £56 and said he should have gone to the ticket office and for £10 he could get the next train. The man will no doubt make a complaint as he was given incorrect information. He did pay up. I overhead the man talking to a friend on the phone and from the conversation it was apparent he had no idea that he had to contact the guard before boarding. I would have been livid in his situation.
Checking the Arriva Advance fare terms it seems the £10 admin charge is in addition to the price of a ticket to a later train. I am not sure how they work this out but the ticket collector did mention this second charge in both cases, unless it was not applicable at that time of day. However in checking Arriva's Revenue Enforcement Policy it seems that they will give the passenger the opportunity to buy a ticket on the train if they do not have the correct ticket and only move to the enforcement if they refuse. So this is a good approach.
In neither case did the ticket collector tell the passenger about what would happen if they did not buy a ticket. To some extent this was not required as both bought tickets but one passenger was taking some time to think about what she would do and I wonder if he would have said anything about this if a passenger refused. He was a very nice collector though! Is informing about potential prosecution or high cost of settlement mandatory for Arriva staff in this situation as I have not heard it mentioned that it is part of any ticket collector's training.
I was also intrigued that after Shrewsbury where the ticket collector changed, the new one came through the train and said any from Shrewsbury. If I had changed at Shrewsbury and caught this train she would have not known that I had not had my ticket checked. The same thing happened after Crewe. On the plus side good for not disturbing passengers more than once, but on the negative side not good for revenue protection. I changed at Chester and got a Virgin to Llandudno Jnc. No ticket checks. Open barrier and no staff at Llandudno Jnc, and I think also Rhyl and Colwyn Bay. So opportunity to ticket fraud is there for the taking.
In many respects the whole line Newport to Chester seems very relaxed and helpful staff. I was allowed to leave at Chester (full single) to go to the pub across the road whilst waiting for a 90min connection but in the end as pub was very noisy and packed got the first train to Llandudno Jnc and walked to Conwy.
