Well the RPI would then be fabricating a story which you seem to suggest is being good at his job. She didn't say she wouldn't buy a ticket. She said "she had tried to buy a ticket at the machine, she asked to purchase one from the member of staff, and then if there had been no opportunity to purchase the ticket she would have bought a single on her return and she knew that was almost the same price". That is VERY different.
With respect, you don't know that is what she said to the RPI. She said that she told the RPI that if there hadn't been an opportunity to buy a ticket - and bear in mind, she'd walked past an open ticket office - she would have bought a signle on her return.
He wouldn't have asked "what would you have done if there wasn't an opportunity to buy a ticket" because there WAS such an opportunity - the open ticket office. He would have asked "what would you have done if I had not been standing here". To answer that with "I would have bought a single ticket" is NOT the right answer. And to think it IS the right answer because "it's only 10p less" is "not getting it".
Looking at the OPs post, how can "intent" really be proved? If she had no intent to buy a ticket why would she try to buy one from the ticket machine?
As a delaying tactice whilst deciding what to do? With a cynical RPI's perspective I really don't see what this proves.
If she had no intent, why would she ask the member of staff if she could buy one from him?
Because there was nothing else credible she could say to the RPI.
Her reply above (with my emphasis) was that if there was no option to buy the ticket, she would have had to buy a single.
Even if this is exactly the words the OP said (and I doubt it, because it wouldn't answer the question the RPI would have asked), it really doesn't help. There WAS an option to buy the ticket. Even if there was not, buying a single ticket is NOT the right answer because it involves paying the wrong fare.
She knew that a single was almost the same price as the return and therefore didn't see that Northern were losing out.
As others have posted, the fact it's 10p is totally irrelevant. The fact she would willingly have walked out of the station having paid nothing, at that stage, means the fare evaded was £1.70 not 10p.
She had already tried to buy a return at the ticket machine and knew that wasn't possible so what sort of ticket was she going to buy when she got back to the station for her return journey?
Not really relevant. [/quote]One assumes she didn't even know there was a ticket office at the station because the RPI had to point it out to her.[/quote]She says she has used the station before and knew there was a ticket office. The fact that it's moved doesn't mean one can assume she thought it no longer existed.
I can see the rationale for paying the £80 and then making a big thing of it -one assumes she has contacts as a travel writer but we also hear regular stories on here about people being overcharged by a small amount of money but saying "it's the principle".
TOCs have a responsibility to have a system which catches fare-evaders not people who want to buy a ticket. The onus is on them to have a method which allows that. One also wonders whether Northern know that they might struggle to win, hence their low offer of £80?
I agree totally. Living where I do, I find the concept of ticket machine-less stations ridiculous and the inconsistent way that Northern seem to run things - with many stations with no ticket facilities, with other stations selling tickets at the gateline, etc. - must lead to many customers like the OP being caught out inadvertently.
I do, honestly, feel reasonably confident that a well explained complaint to Northern would reap results, but still think that paying first is the safest option to avoid a risk of a legal conviction.
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The fact is that there were no facilities to buy a ticket at the origin station, and no opportunity to buy on the train. The OP, not being a regular traveller, then sought help from a member of staff, and ended up with a prosecution.
I think if I had wanted to pay my fare, and been unable to do so at my origin station or on the train, I'd have looked quite hard for the ticket office upon arrival, not walked past one which was immediately to my left hand side en route from platform to ticket machine (and then station exit).