125Spotter
Member
Looking for the forum’s experience in what to say if you want to speak to a guard of a service, but gateline staff refuse? Is this just a blind accept of what gateline says and move on with life, or do you have some magic words of persuasion to make this request more likely to be granted?
This could be for a variety of legitimate reasons, but the example I present is where I held a valid ticket for service two hours later, and wished to ask the guard (as an “authorised person”) about travelling earlier. As eventually happened, this was all allowed and I managed to go about my journey. I was very grateful – I got home much earlier than I would otherwise, didn’t waste a lot of time buying terrible food at the station, and I don’t think anyone or the railway was inconvenienced or worse off. But, this was only after a difficult exchange with gateline.
We see plenty of examples here of gateline training for revenue and fare matters being variable, often poor, even at major termini and interchange stations, so I wonder what other example scenarios have arisen for forum readers who wished to speak to on-train crew, and how they typically navigate these.
This happened to me a few months ago. I was unexpectedly early for a train in the middle of the day on a Sunday and intended to enquire of the guard about travelling two hours earlier than booked (on an Advance). A polite request goes a long way, is often granted, and in this case causes minimal detriment to the railway or my fellow traveller – but it is, of course, entirely discretionary. I’d have happily accepted and waited for the booked service if my request had been refused for any reason.
A gateline attendant inspected the ticket after I managed to approach a gate that had a broken reader. I explained I wished to speak to the guard, but they refused, pointing me towards the ticket office with comments like “the guard cannot allow that”. I quickly gave up trying to explain about guard discretion as it was clear I was achieving nothing and probably looked like another chancer who doesn’t know the rules of travelling on an Advance.
In the event, I picked another gate out of sight of that attendant. The guard had no problem with my request and allowed me to board. It wasn’t a busy service, it is not on a ‘main line’ high speed route, and this was a Sunday – all factors I’d considered as to whether my request was likely to be granted or cause detriment to others. I don’t think there’s any analog to other examples I’ve read on the forum of trying to use a later, cheaper advance at a ‘peak’ time, nor was I contributed to overcrowding a train – it was perhaps 30% loaded.
The station concerned isn’t in a CTA, and in any event I held a valid ticket, just for a later train, and I wasn’t intending to commit any technical or actual breach of any rules – I wouldn’t step foot inside the train until I’d located the guard and obtained permission to do so. It left a positive impression of the railway and I was grateful to get home earlier.
But this only worked for me due to the design of the gateline being long and thin, staffed by separate attendants, so I could simply use another gate. I couldn’t necessarily have achieved the same outcome at a smaller station or where there is a single gateline staffed by a single team.
This could be for a variety of legitimate reasons, but the example I present is where I held a valid ticket for service two hours later, and wished to ask the guard (as an “authorised person”) about travelling earlier. As eventually happened, this was all allowed and I managed to go about my journey. I was very grateful – I got home much earlier than I would otherwise, didn’t waste a lot of time buying terrible food at the station, and I don’t think anyone or the railway was inconvenienced or worse off. But, this was only after a difficult exchange with gateline.
We see plenty of examples here of gateline training for revenue and fare matters being variable, often poor, even at major termini and interchange stations, so I wonder what other example scenarios have arisen for forum readers who wished to speak to on-train crew, and how they typically navigate these.
This happened to me a few months ago. I was unexpectedly early for a train in the middle of the day on a Sunday and intended to enquire of the guard about travelling two hours earlier than booked (on an Advance). A polite request goes a long way, is often granted, and in this case causes minimal detriment to the railway or my fellow traveller – but it is, of course, entirely discretionary. I’d have happily accepted and waited for the booked service if my request had been refused for any reason.
A gateline attendant inspected the ticket after I managed to approach a gate that had a broken reader. I explained I wished to speak to the guard, but they refused, pointing me towards the ticket office with comments like “the guard cannot allow that”. I quickly gave up trying to explain about guard discretion as it was clear I was achieving nothing and probably looked like another chancer who doesn’t know the rules of travelling on an Advance.
In the event, I picked another gate out of sight of that attendant. The guard had no problem with my request and allowed me to board. It wasn’t a busy service, it is not on a ‘main line’ high speed route, and this was a Sunday – all factors I’d considered as to whether my request was likely to be granted or cause detriment to others. I don’t think there’s any analog to other examples I’ve read on the forum of trying to use a later, cheaper advance at a ‘peak’ time, nor was I contributed to overcrowding a train – it was perhaps 30% loaded.
The station concerned isn’t in a CTA, and in any event I held a valid ticket, just for a later train, and I wasn’t intending to commit any technical or actual breach of any rules – I wouldn’t step foot inside the train until I’d located the guard and obtained permission to do so. It left a positive impression of the railway and I was grateful to get home earlier.
But this only worked for me due to the design of the gateline being long and thin, staffed by separate attendants, so I could simply use another gate. I couldn’t necessarily have achieved the same outcome at a smaller station or where there is a single gateline staffed by a single team.
