Entering a station without a ticket, without intention to travel

[Benjwri]

Recently some friends while doing an activity were challenged to get a photo as high as possible by Bath Spa station, the idea being to hold each other, but they decided to get a photo from a platform, which being about 2 stories up is admittedly quite high. To do this they entered the station, and since they could not find any staff to ask, proceeded through the barriers and up to the platform, where I took a photo of them from the ground, and then they proceeded to return to the exit, which was also open. However after they had exited the station someone came up to us, it is not clear if they were GWR staff, they certainly weren't on duty as any uniform was covered by a coat, and informed them that they had committed a crime as it was a 'Penalty fare zone'. Nothing came of it as they didn't ask for details, and the group just walked away after getting berated for a bit.
What I wanted to ask is if they were correct? It's my understanding that no wrongdoing was committed here, since there was no intention to travel, and they went to reasonable measures to ask for permission from staff, however there were none. My only thought is if they meant Compulsory Ticket Area, but it's my understanding this isn't the case for Bath Spa? There certainly are no signs.

 

[Watershed]

Recently some friends while doing an activity were challenged to get a photo as high as possible by Bath Spa station, the idea being to hold each other, but they decided to get a photo from a platform, which being about 2 stories up is admittedly quite high. To do this they entered the station, and since they could not find any staff to ask, proceeded through the barriers and up to the platform, where I took a photo of them from the ground, and then they proceeded to return to the exit, which was also open. However after they had exited the station someone came up to us, it is not clear if they were GWR staff, they certainly weren't on duty as any uniform was covered by a coat, and informed them that they had committed a crime as it was a 'Penalty fare zone'. Nothing came of it as they didn't ask for details, and the group just walked away after getting berated for a bit.
What I wanted to ask is if they were correct? It's my understanding that no wrongdoing was committed here, since there was no intention to travel, and they went to reasonable measures to ask for permission from staff, however there were none. My only thought is if they meant Compulsory Ticket Area, but it's my understanding this isn't the case for Bath Spa? There certainly are no signs.

The only circumstances in which this would be a crime is, as you've suggested, if there were signage indicating the area beyond the barriers to be a Compulsory Ticket Area (CTA). There are some stations which have this - notably, most TfL managed stations, as well as some Chiltern managed ones (there may be others too). But I'm not aware of any such GWR managed stations.

If this were the case, they would be committing an offence under Byelaw 17(1) of the Railway Byelaws - however, it is unique amongst the Byelaws in that there is no actual penalty for breaking it. See Byelaw 24(1):

Any person who breaches any of these Byelaws commits an offence and, with the exception of Byelaw 17, may be liable for each such offence to a penalty not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.

So realistically the worst thing that could happen would be their removal from the station, using reasonable force if necessary.

And although Bath Spa is indeed a Penalty Fares station (it's a little bit more complex than that, but let's use that term for now), it wouldn't have been permissible for them to be issued with a Penalty Fare without the previously-mentioned CTA signage. Only if a station has CTA signage can you be issued with a Penalty Fare for the act of passing the barriers without a ticket. There is also a specific exception if there is no way of buying a platform ticket - so if the ticket office was shut (you can't buy platform tickets from ticket machines) then they also couldn't have been issued with a Penalty Fare.

So, whilst I wouldn't necessarily encourage anyone to do what your friends did, they didn't commit any offence, nor were they liable to be issued with a Penalty Fare.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

So, what if I am meeting somebody off the train at an open-barriered station with no visible staff, with no intention to travel, does that mean I have committed a crime? What is the world coming to!? Maybe we need to define exactly what a "crime" is as clearly, the railway's definition is different

 

[Birmingham]

So, what if I am meeting somebody off the train at an open-barriered station with no visible staff, with no intention to travel, does that mean I have committed a crime? What is the world coming to!? Maybe we need to define exactly what a "crime" is as clearly, the railway's definition is different

The reply just above yours explained very clearly that what you describe is generally not a crime.

 

[island]

GWR does not have any compulsory ticket areas other than possibly the stations it shares with TfL, and from the information given I agree that no offence has been committed here nor could any Penalty Fare have been issued. The most that could have been done by staff would have been to withdraw their implied permission to be on the station and ask them to leave, which it seems they were in the process of doing anyway.

 

[Ediswan]

The most that could have been done by staff would have been to withdraw their implied permission to be on the station and ask them to leave, which it seems they were in the process of doing anyway.

Not even that. To quote the OP "However after they had exited the station someone came up to us"

 

[cambran]

I was recently on the platform at Carmarthen when one of TFWs agency workers came up and rather rudely demanded to see my ticket. As this is not a penalty fare station and I had not boarded or a alighted from a train I was wondering whether he was entitles to see it- I could have been meeting someone or just using the buffet.

 

[Watershed]

I was recently on the platform at Carmarthen when one of TFWs agency workers came up and rather rudely demanded to see my ticket. As this is not a penalty fare station and I had not boarded or a alighted from a train I was wondering whether he was entitles to see it- I could have been meeting someone or just using the buffet.

He wasn't. He would have been entitled to tell you to leave the station as a non-ticket holder, but that's about it.

 

[WesternLancer]

and since they could not find any staff to ask, proceeded through the barriers and up to the platform,

Notwithstanding the other helpful answers, are you saying there is no ticket office? and no one in the ticket office to ask?

I suspect this is just a group of young people doing stuff that the person who spoke to them considered was annoying / taking the piss/ not appropriate on a railway station etc etc.

But if so what are people coming to if they go to a station, want to do something, but do not have the gumption to present themselves at the ticket office and ask.

I put it to you sir, (as m'learned friends might say) that there were in fact staff to ask and in plain Anglo Saxon, the suggestion that there were not, is BS.

 

[Benjwri]

Notwithstanding the other helpful answers, are you saying there is no ticket office? and no one in the ticket office to ask?

This was rather late in the evening, after the ticket office was closed, and I can assure you we searched for a member of staff. I was there, however decided not to go onto the platform after we couldn’t find anyone as I wasn’t sure about the legality.
The person who told us off may have been there, but was not at the gate line, nor were they at all recognisable as a member of staff, or wearing uniform.

 

[WesternLancer]

This was rather late in the evening, after the ticket office was closed, and I can assure you we searched for a member of staff. I was there, however decided not to go onto the platform after we couldn’t find anyone as I wasn’t sure about the legality.
The person who told us off may have been there, but was not at the gate line, nor were they at all recognisable as a member of staff, or wearing uniform.

Thanks for answering that - interesting scenario then! Do you think they may have been off duty staff?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

It's not impossible that a 'concerned member of the public'/'busybody' (other terms are available) got themselves involved without any specific authority rather than someone from the railway.

I'm assuming that the activity (take a picture of a member of your team as high up as possible) was for 'young people' (it doesn't sound like the sort of thing that would get much traction with a bunch of pensioners, who would probably prefer to go to a pub or a tea shop). If that's the case, then someone rather older may have thought they were doing their public duty by warning off what they perceived as a bunch of kids messing about.