I was travelling last week from Brighton [BTN] to Kingston [KNG] on the return portion of a Upper Halliford [UPH]-BTN SDR, on a fast service calling BTN-ECR-CLJ-VIC.
Having been on a slower service making 3 or 4 more stops in the morning I didn't realise CLJ was the next stop, and being absorbed in my iPad watching TV I was distracted and missed my change at CLJ to connect to KNG by a few moments.
Annoyed and delayed getting home and needing a train back to CLJ, I left the train on terminating at VIC and, as there was no phone signal on the concourse and most of the per-train departure boards were not showing a train, I went to exit the ticket barriers to see the departure boards a few yards past which are facing away from the incoming passengers.
I put my ticket through the barrier and it rejected it as I was expecting, as most break of journey entry/exit stations I have found - indeed that morning starting my journey short at KNG (the UPH-BTN SDR is cheaper than the KNG-BTN ticket, the former priced by Southern and the latter by SWT I believe).
I then approached the manual barrier and offered my ticket to the guard, who requested to see my YNG railcard - which I offered. He took me aside and for a moment I thought I had produced an expired railcard, as I had only recently renewed it.
Usually travelling on the AP routing of this ticket or on some variants to GTW involving the Gatwick Express or otherwise, I was used to being able to break my journey at VIC in any case, but I hadn't realised that by choosing a connection via CLJ and just selecting the lowest fare I had purchased a NOT VIA LONDON route restricted ticket. Given that I did not intend to travel via VIC anyway, and was not looking to leave the station either, the ticket was the last thought on my mind.
However the RPI had indeed noticed the route restriction, and informed me that the ticket was not valid for travel. At this point I realised, and offered to pay an excess fare, however this was refused and he accused me of intending to evade payment of the excess. I remonstrated and explained the situation in detail as above, that I had missed my stop, was not intending to leave the station, and was not aware at the time of the route restriction on the ticket I had purchased.
Nonetheless he took my details in his notebook, and I was not able to take a penalty fare and argue it further at a later day as a penalty fare was not applicable/permitted.
A few questions:
- Should I have been allowed to just pay the excess fare?
- I thought a penalty fare was not appropriate in this case because it should be dealt with by way of an excess, not to necessarily give the only available option to an RPI (in terms of penalty) being to report for prosecution?
- Would they attempt to prosecute this in a way of a strict liability offence in which no intent needs to be proved?
- If not, would they have sufficient evidence to prove intent if it went to court?
Having been on a slower service making 3 or 4 more stops in the morning I didn't realise CLJ was the next stop, and being absorbed in my iPad watching TV I was distracted and missed my change at CLJ to connect to KNG by a few moments.
Annoyed and delayed getting home and needing a train back to CLJ, I left the train on terminating at VIC and, as there was no phone signal on the concourse and most of the per-train departure boards were not showing a train, I went to exit the ticket barriers to see the departure boards a few yards past which are facing away from the incoming passengers.
I put my ticket through the barrier and it rejected it as I was expecting, as most break of journey entry/exit stations I have found - indeed that morning starting my journey short at KNG (the UPH-BTN SDR is cheaper than the KNG-BTN ticket, the former priced by Southern and the latter by SWT I believe).
I then approached the manual barrier and offered my ticket to the guard, who requested to see my YNG railcard - which I offered. He took me aside and for a moment I thought I had produced an expired railcard, as I had only recently renewed it.
Usually travelling on the AP routing of this ticket or on some variants to GTW involving the Gatwick Express or otherwise, I was used to being able to break my journey at VIC in any case, but I hadn't realised that by choosing a connection via CLJ and just selecting the lowest fare I had purchased a NOT VIA LONDON route restricted ticket. Given that I did not intend to travel via VIC anyway, and was not looking to leave the station either, the ticket was the last thought on my mind.
However the RPI had indeed noticed the route restriction, and informed me that the ticket was not valid for travel. At this point I realised, and offered to pay an excess fare, however this was refused and he accused me of intending to evade payment of the excess. I remonstrated and explained the situation in detail as above, that I had missed my stop, was not intending to leave the station, and was not aware at the time of the route restriction on the ticket I had purchased.
Nonetheless he took my details in his notebook, and I was not able to take a penalty fare and argue it further at a later day as a penalty fare was not applicable/permitted.
A few questions:
- Should I have been allowed to just pay the excess fare?
- I thought a penalty fare was not appropriate in this case because it should be dealt with by way of an excess, not to necessarily give the only available option to an RPI (in terms of penalty) being to report for prosecution?
- Would they attempt to prosecute this in a way of a strict liability offence in which no intent needs to be proved?
- If not, would they have sufficient evidence to prove intent if it went to court?
