I'm a bit confused about what you're saying here.
I think the point is that if you carry enough cash with you, and you find yourself in that situation, you can bail out whilst waiting at the TVM, board the train, and pay with cash. (Or simply see a long queue, think “that isn’t going to give me time to buy” and walk past and onto the platform. I’ve actually done that a couple of times being of the old fashioned type that still carries cash wherever I go.)
How is this meaningfully different from a ticket office? How much sympathy would there be if someone posted
Unless of course you are very familiar with the station (such as one used for a regular commute) and know very well that there isn’t such a facility.
Agreed yes, but even here I'd urge caution. Being a regular user of the station would be no defence if there were no machines and then one day a machine is installed in a place you don't notice it, for example. I'd expect reasonable allowances to be made where there are newly installed machines, but in terms of a defence...
Not in my experience. I have relatively often found a ticket office shut during the published opening hours. If an office is short staffed so being single manned, it can rely on the staff member actually logging that they've been away for a loo break. Most of the time the TOC will be completely unaware that the office might have been shut for 5 minutes here and there.
Even at the two stations closest to my home, it is quite hit and miss whether the tickets offices will be open and these are both stations with very significant usage.
The staffing of ticket offices can be notoriously variable, even at some medium sized stations. Even when staffed, they may be closed temporarily for staff breaks - but we have heard of several people who haven't been believed at their destination (or onboard) when they said the ticket office counter was shut, or no-one was there.
I don't think these queueing times are something you can rely upon, unfortunately. They should be, but none of the Charters I have read say it is permitted to buy onboard if they are exceeded.
Part payment by different methods is not an official form of payment, even if it is accepted at some ticket offices. You need to have enough funds available with one chosen payment method.
Interesting. Back when Rail Travel Vouchers were the only option for Delay claims I often had vouchers which didn't cover the full cost of the ticket i wanted. Never once was I told I could not use them and pay the balance by cash/card, even at notoriously awkward Sheffield.
In a thread about accepting cash, how does having a phone help?
I have never seen anything to say that a combination of acceptable methods of payment is unacceptable.
Neither have I. Would be interested to know where Watershed has seen such a rule documented.
You don't have a credit card with you, but you do have a phone with an app. The consensus of this thread is that if confronted with a card only machine and closed or non-existant ticket office, you are under no compulsion to use a phone app and can therefore board without a ticket. Also you cannot pay by phone once you have boarded.
Yes you can. You only cannot do so (and avoid a Bylaw 18 charge) if you passed an opportunity to pay.
I actually tried to do this and whoever wrote the guide clearly didn’t. When you try to obtain a ‘Promise to Pay’ from a Northern ticket machine (wishing to pay by card) you have to make a false declaration on the screen where you confirm that you wish to print the notice by saying that:
So you can follow the instructions on the RST guidance, or you can follow the instructions on the ticket machine, but not both.
This is a fair point and I don’t think a passenger should be penalised for this. Often if a TVM is low on change it won’t accept large denomination notes for small fares. In this case I would head straight for the guard or ATE after boarding the train,or explain before boarding. I think a RPI would take some convincing if one just got on and sat down waiting for someone to come.
I've had a number of RTVs from DR claims quite recently, and never had any problems using them at my local station as part payment, with cash or card for the balance. Almost all my RTVs are used that way.
You could have used a high-value voucher to buy multiple tickets in one go, as long as you had an idea of your future plans
