Ticket Inspector cutting wrong ticket

[JamesPearce94]

Hi all,

Last weekend I was travelling from Sheffield to Whitchurch Shropshire for the weekend and I bought a return which was valid for a month. On the outgoing journey my ticket was checked on my first leg of the journey. I passed my tickets to the inspector and without me noticing he had cut my return ticket not my outgoing.

On my way home I didn't notice this until my ticket got checked on the first leg of the way back and I was worried he wouldn't accept my ticket but luckily he just clipped my outgoing ticket and I was ok for the rest of my journey.

I was just wondering if I would have had a leg to stand on or if I would have been eligible for a penalty fare of some sort if the ticket inspector had confronted me about it?

 

[najaB]

I was just wondering if I would have had a leg to stand on or if I would have been eligible for a penalty fare of some sort if the ticket inspector had confronted me about it?

Clipping or marking a ticket doesn't invalidate it (despite what some Northern guards seem to believe). As long as the information on the ticket was still legible you would be fine.

 

[Bletchleyite]

And indeed if they used a stamp showing the train reporting number/headcode it would with a bit of investigation be possible to identify the error as one.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Clipping or marking a ticket doesn't invalidate it (despite what some Northern guards seem to believe).

Not in itself, but it does make it appear as though it has already been used, which could lead to questioning.

Generally though they'll take a passenger's word at it

 

[JamesPearce94]

I imagine that fact I bought the ticket on the Friday probably helped. I imagine if I had stayed the week he might have been more suspicious even though that should make no difference. Who's going to cross the country twice in 1 weekend to a small village on the outskirts of Wales anyway ?