ValleyLines142
Established Member
Every Thursday I commute from Trowbridge to Filton Abbey Wood. A few weeks ago I was making my regular journey with my friend. I had a return portion of an Anytime Return whilst he needed to buy a ticket at Trowbridge.
Trowbridge station has two windows (both of which are staffed in the morning) and a ticket machine on the platform outside. The ticket machine was broken and the queues for both windows in the ticket office were starting to build up.
After having queued for almost ten minutes, not helped by the fact some silly old dear took up quite some time at one window querying a future journey (why she came to the station at the height of rush hour to perform this I have no idea), I advised my mate to purchase his ticket on the train, as the first point of purchase (the ticket machine) was broken, and he had been queueing for double the amount of time suggested in the NRCoC, and so the next point of purchase would have been on the train.
The train pulled into Trowbridge and it was a 2-car 158 instead of a 5-car 165/166 combo, subsequently it was rammed to the rafters and arrived into Temple Meads twenty minutes late. We are students at UWE Frenchay and usually walk up to the campus from Filton Abbey Wood (usually a 20 minute walk), but because of how late we were, we decided to bail at Temple Meads and get the Metrobus from Redcliff Hill straight to UWE instead. We got to the unpaid fares booth at Temple Meads, and were greeted by a regular ticket clerk and a Revenue Protection Inspector. The regular ticket clerk offered her services, and when my mate asked for a return ticket from Trowbridge, she immediately passed him over to the RPI.
Thankfully, the RPI was more than happy to sell him a ticket, although a little dubious at first as she wasn't aware of the ticket machine at Trowbridge being broken. I think the RPI was a little caught-off when I told her that the Peak waiting time of five minutes at a queue had been broken, and I think if I was not knowledgeable on railway byelaws she'd have slapped him with a PF. But I am curious as to why the regular ticket clerk passed him on to the RPI in the first place. It was as if it was a trap to purposely get him slapped with a penalty fare, which he wouldn't have been liable for as he hadn't broken any byelaws at this point.
Any thoughts on this please?
Trowbridge station has two windows (both of which are staffed in the morning) and a ticket machine on the platform outside. The ticket machine was broken and the queues for both windows in the ticket office were starting to build up.
After having queued for almost ten minutes, not helped by the fact some silly old dear took up quite some time at one window querying a future journey (why she came to the station at the height of rush hour to perform this I have no idea), I advised my mate to purchase his ticket on the train, as the first point of purchase (the ticket machine) was broken, and he had been queueing for double the amount of time suggested in the NRCoC, and so the next point of purchase would have been on the train.
The train pulled into Trowbridge and it was a 2-car 158 instead of a 5-car 165/166 combo, subsequently it was rammed to the rafters and arrived into Temple Meads twenty minutes late. We are students at UWE Frenchay and usually walk up to the campus from Filton Abbey Wood (usually a 20 minute walk), but because of how late we were, we decided to bail at Temple Meads and get the Metrobus from Redcliff Hill straight to UWE instead. We got to the unpaid fares booth at Temple Meads, and were greeted by a regular ticket clerk and a Revenue Protection Inspector. The regular ticket clerk offered her services, and when my mate asked for a return ticket from Trowbridge, she immediately passed him over to the RPI.
Thankfully, the RPI was more than happy to sell him a ticket, although a little dubious at first as she wasn't aware of the ticket machine at Trowbridge being broken. I think the RPI was a little caught-off when I told her that the Peak waiting time of five minutes at a queue had been broken, and I think if I was not knowledgeable on railway byelaws she'd have slapped him with a PF. But I am curious as to why the regular ticket clerk passed him on to the RPI in the first place. It was as if it was a trap to purposely get him slapped with a penalty fare, which he wouldn't have been liable for as he hadn't broken any byelaws at this point.
Any thoughts on this please?