Train Guard refused to sell Ticket with 16-25 Railcard Discount

[Dave91131]

Hi all,

A bit of an historic incident (from 2011) but one that has been nagging at me ever since. Any clarity or input on whether the guard's stance was correct or not would be appreciated.

Summer Saturday in 2011, I arrive at my local station (Peterborough) station to travel to Norfolk for the 47-hauled 'Yarmouth drags'. Booking office usually opens at 0610, on that day it was not opening until 0700 due to 'unforeseen circumstances' and I'm catching the 0627 to Norwich. To compound matters, I can only purchase one of the two tickets I require from the self-service machines - i.e a day return Peterborough - Ely and not the Anglia Plus one day ranger.

The guard on the Norwich train carries out a ticket check, and I explain that my intention is to travel to Norwich on this train but due to the above circumstances I haven't been able to purchase the Anglia day ranger. I ask if he can sell me one with a 16-25 discount. He says he can only sell me one at full adult price, because the booking office at Ely (the station from which the day ranger is valid) will be open when the train departs Ely hence I should buy the day ranger at Ely. I dispute this with him, he remains unmoved, and also declines my request to purchase the day ranger from the booking office at Norwich because he will then be allowing me to fare evade between Ely and Norwich.

Ultimately I purchased the full-priced day ranger from him, and didn't pursue the matter any further as delays in Anglia on that day meant I got almost all of the day ranger monies back subsequently anyway.

Any clarification on the position the guard took and his reasoning would be welcomed.

Thanks

 

[AlterEgo]

The guard was incorrect and should have sold you the discounted ticket. That’s the sum of the matter.

 

[yorkie]

The Guard was wrong, and probably carried on doing it to other people.

Unfortunately there are many instances of passengers being incorrectly charged occurring on a frequent basis; I only get to hear about a small proportion of the overall problem and yet there are so many cases I am aware of now, and that number is growing almost daily. There are insufficient safeguards in place to stop this sort of thing happening. Nothing has changed since 2011, and I can't see any end in sight.

 

[AlterEgo]

The Guard was wrong, and probably carried on doing it to other people.

Unfortunately there are many instances of passengers being incorrectly charged occurring on a frequent basis; I only get to hear about a small proportion of the overall problem and yet there are so many cases I am aware of now, and that number is growing almost daily. There are insufficient safeguards in place to stop this sort of thing happening. Nothing has changed since 2011, and I can't see any end in sight.

Roll on the (delayed) Railway consumer ombudsman... *checks watch, sighs*

 

[Haywain]

Roll on the (delayed) Railway consumer ombudsman... *checks watch, sighs*

I doubt that they'd be much help in a case from 7 years ago that wasn't pursued at the time.

 

[AlterEgo]

I doubt that they'd be much help in a case from 7 years ago that wasn't pursued at the time.

Well no, but this kind of nonsense still goes on as @yorkie says.