Travel in Bristol yesterday - did I effectively fare evade?

[ValleyLines142]

Morning,

Yesterday I caught the 1626 Filton Abbey Wood to Weymouth service. I was going to Temple Meads.

As I live in Cardiff and commute to Bristol for uni, I normally by an Anytime Day Return from Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads, which is £12 applying the minimum fare with a 16-25 card before 10am.

Normally, I go from Cardiff to Filton Abbey Wood, exit the station and go to uni. Later on in the day I will make my way by bus from uni to the centre of Bristol and will then use the return portion of my ticket to go straight from Temple Meads back to Cardiff.

When I alighted at Filton Abbey Wood yesterday, which was at 0809 (0730 Cardiff to Portsmouth), I handed in my ticket to the inspector stood at the entrance to the station, as I always do, and proceeded on to Uni.

Yesterday, however, I changed my schedule and continued on to Temple Meads from Filton later in the day (on the 1626 to Weymouth), as I was with my friend who was travelling to Westbury. I had completely forgotten I'd handed in my outbound portion at Filton earlier on. When I got off at Temple Meads I went to fetch my rail wallet out of my bag and realised I handed in my ticket earlier that day.

I was really concerned I was going to get a Penalty Fare or whatever because at Filton it does say buy before you board all over the station. However, I went to the unpaid fares booth at Temple Meads and was just simply issued a Standard Anytime YP Single (at £2.05) from Filton.

Although of course a total blessing, why was I not charged for not buying at the first available opportunity? If this was in Northern land I'd have been slapped with an £80 fine!

 

[yorkie]

Morning,

Yesterday I caught the 1626 Filton Abbey Wood to Weymouth service. I was going to Temple Meads.

As I live in Cardiff and commute to Bristol for uni, I normally by an Anytime Day Return from Cardiff Central to Bristol Temple Meads, which is £12 applying the minimum fare with a 16-25 card before 10am.

Normally, I go from Cardiff to Filton Abbey Wood, exit the station and go to uni. Later on in the day I will make my way by bus from uni to the centre of Bristol and will then use the return portion of my ticket to go straight from Temple Meads back to Cardiff.

When I alighted at Filton Abbey Wood yesterday, which was at 0809 (0730 Cardiff to Portsmouth), I handed in my ticket to the inspector stood at the entrance to the station, as I always do, and proceeded on to Uni.

Yesterday, however, I changed my schedule and continued on to Temple Meads from Filton later in the day (on the 1626 to Weymouth), as I was with my friend who was travelling to Westbury. I had completely forgotten I'd handed in my outbound portion at Filton earlier on. When I got off at Temple Meads I went to fetch my rail wallet out of my bag and realised I handed in my ticket earlier that day.

You clearly did not evade any fare.
You were in breach of the Railway Byelaws.
You were liable for a Penalty Fare.

See the Legal and Disputes sections of our Fares Guide.

I was really concerned I was going to get a Penalty Fare or whatever because at Filton it does say buy before you board all over the station. However, I went to the unpaid fares booth at Temple Meads and was just simply issued a Standard Anytime YP Single (at £2.05) from Filton.

Was Filton Abbey Wood ticket office staffed at the time you travelled?

Although of course a total blessing, why was I not charged for not buying at the first available opportunity?

If you had opportunity to buy at Filton Abbey Wood, then the full Anytime Single/Return is chargeable, or a Penalty Fare can be charged by an authorised collector (ie, an RPI), however if there are any issues with people buying tickets there, the staff at Bristol would likely give people benefit of any doubt.

If this was in Northern land I'd have been slapped with an £80 fine!

Northern would unlikely have asked you to pay £80 in what they call a "fixed penalty" but is really an out of court settlement, and in any case isn't a fine, in the circumstances you describe (ie, a first occasion, and being honest about where you started that particular journey). They may, however, have issued a "Failure to pay" notice to put a mark against your name in future. But that would only apply if inspectors were present.

 

[MyFriendMary]

West Country is more lenient than up north

But, seriously, Filton has only a TVM which rarely works so issuing PFs from there is nearly impossible to uphold.

 

[sonic2009]

The little hut which acts as a ticket office is only open at certain times of the day.

 

[yorkie]

To clarify, if the ticket office hut was closed, and the TVM was not able to issue the ticket using your chosen payment method (or you were unable to use the machine for any other reason), then you were entitled to the appropriate discounted fare on arrival at Bristol Temple Meads.

But if this wasn't the case, it sounds like you were given the benefit of any doubt.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Was Filton Abbey Wood ticket office staffed at the time you travelled?

In fairness I didn't notice. Normally though it isn't. It is only staffed in the mornings, with three staff on the entrance by Platform 1 and two stood on the footbridge. There is just a machine on the platform. So techincally the machine would have been my first available opportunity, hence why I was concerned and worried it looked as if I was evading my fare.

Although of course if the machine was broken then I'm aware that wouldn't have been a problem as then at Temple Meads this would have been my first available opportunity.

 

[DeeGee]

When I alighted at Filton Abbey Wood yesterday, which was at 0809 (0730 Cardiff to Portsmouth), I handed in my ticket to the inspector stood at the entrance to the station

Do they make you hand it in, or is it just something that you do?

Not that it adds anything to the discussion, just interested. I assume if you'd still had the ticket for your second journey there would have been no problem.

 

[VisualAcid]

They don't seem to mind where you buy from at Temple Meads, I always buy Bath Spa tickets when I've come from Oldfield and never been questioned. Sounds much nicer than Northern!

 

[ValleyLines142]

Do they make you hand it in, or is it just something that you do?

Not that it adds anything to the discussion, just interested. I assume if you'd still had the ticket for your second journey there would have been no problem.

No, I can keep it, but if I think I've finished my outbound journey, then I'll just give it to them.

 

[Parallel]

To be fair, the ticket office at Filton is rarely open and the vending machine is quite often not working. Due to ticket offices being closed quite early or at random times on medium stations around Temple Meads, and with vending machines that are either broken or don't accept cash, I'd imagine it would be difficult to enforce penalty fares. There were two RPIs on my train Cardiff - Portsmouth and they were getting annoyed that a lot of the ticket offices were closed and at the stations that have them, the vending machines being out of order so couldn't penalty fare everyone who boarded these stations without tickets.