From: http://money.guardian.co.uk/consumernews/story/0,,2077651,00.html
Someone on uk.railway wrote a letter to GNER after they attempted to overcharge his son and his friends
And another one in the Guardian, http://money.guardian.co.uk/consumernews/story/0,,2072549,00.html
And a selection here:http://money.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1763778,00.html (note that one applies to Virgin rather than GNER, so I have not pasted it below, click the link above if you want to read it)
Fined £188 for catching the right train at the wrong stop
You have a valid ticket, you are on the right inter-city train and you are itting in the right seats. So why does GNER impose a £188 fine on you? That's the situation in which Kent mother Alison Spicer found herself on a train to London from Berwick-upon-Tweed. Her "crime" was to get on her booked train, but at the York stop, further along the line towards London.
Mrs Spicer and her two children, who live in West Wickham, had booked return tickets from London to Berwick-upon-Tweed to stay with friends. While there, they decided they wanted to visit the Jorvik museum in York.
The day before their return to London they bought extra single tickets to York, to make the educational visit. They then boarded the same train they would have got had they been coming back from Berwick. All trains from Berwick stop at GNER's home town York. "The inspector asked for tickets from York and I handed ours over. As soon as he looked at them he told me they that because we had boarded in York, they were 'invalid'. I couldn't believe my ears. I explained calmly that we were sitting in the correct seats, which were reserved for our use from Berwick all the way to London."
In keeping with other Guardian Money readers' experiences, the inspector wouldn't listen to her arguments. Instead he demanded she hand over £188 in penalty fares for an adult and two children from York to London.
"I refused to pay so he took my name and address. The whole experience was very unpleasant, as I felt I was being criminalised in front of a carriage full of passengers, and my own two children, for using a service for which I had already paid. What possible difference did it make that the seats were left unoccupied from Berwick until York?" she asks.
Mrs Spicer is the latest traveller to fall foul of the GNER excess fares policy. Money has featured several similar cases - on each occasion the passenger suffers a humiliating experience, and is forced into handing over large sums of money, which can often be five times more than the original fare.
Last week, we featured the case of Surrey businessman Richard Alaoui who says GNER is going to have to sue him if it wants £256 in penalties and extra fares demanded by one of its guards.
Meanwhile, Ms Spicer, a part-time solicitor, says she has appealed against the penalty fares and is waiting for a response from GNER.
A GNER spokesman told Money: "The terms of all railway advance purchase fares, which are heavily discounted in return for committing in advance to travel on a particular train, state that passengers must travel on that train between the stations specified on the ticket.
"This allows reserved train seats which are unoccupied after leaving the station shown on the advance purchase ticket to be used by other passengers travelling on flexible tickets, who might otherwise have to stand where the train becomes busier down the line.
"We have received the passenger's letter and due to the specific circumstances of this case we will waive the excess charge."
Someone on uk.railway wrote a letter to GNER after they attempted to overcharge his son and his friends
Envo on uk.railway said:Dear Sirs
Excess Fare Request - Ref **************
I refer to your letter of ******, addressed to my son, ************, regarding his journey on the 8.45 from Peterborough to Newcastle on
***********.
There is no dispute that he and his companions were travelling on an invalid Saver ticket at that time. However, the demand for £316.00 seems to be somewhat excessive, bearing in mind the following:
- The National Rail Conditions of Carriage state that:
"If you travel on a train with a ticket which is not valid on that train because of such a published restriction, you will have to pay the difference between the price of that ticket and the price of the cheapest ticket available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to travel on that train for the journey shown on your ticket."
- GNER's website states:
"If you travel on our trains with a ticket that is not valid for the journey you are making, you will have to pay an excess fare. This will be the difference between the Open or Day fare for that journey, less any appropriate allowances for the ticket you hold."
- National Rail Enquiries' website gives the cost of a Peterborough - Newcastle Standard Open Single as £64.00.
- The cost of a similar Saver Return is shown as £71.00 (which logically equates to a price of £35.50 for each leg of the journey).
- The Ticket Inspector in question intimated that the excess fare demanded would only be about 3 x £14.00 (i.e. £42.00) in total.
I am having some difficulty in reconciling the above to the requested excess
fare of £102.00 per person (+ £10.00 administration fee). Three Standard Open Single tickets alone would seem only to merit a demand for £202.00, without taking into account the requisite allowance for the return portions of the Saver tickets being used at the time.
I would ask that, before this account is settled, you either recalculate the amount due, arriving at a more reasonable figure, or provide an acceptable detailed explanation of how you arrive at £316.00. I await your reply.
Yours sincerely ...."
I am still, some 21 months later, awaiting their reply - although if they see this they may be spurred into action!!
At least the gripper was polite and reasonable, unlike the one on the previous train, who had evicted them at Peterborough! (The 3 of them had just come off a tiring overnight flight from Mumbai and were anxious for an early return to civilisation (Tyneside) - hence the mis-use of tickets)
Envo
And another one in the Guardian, http://money.guardian.co.uk/consumernews/story/0,,2072549,00.html
See you in court, passenger tells GNER
A Surrey businessman says GNER is going to have to sue him if it wants £256 in penalties and extra fares demanded by one of its guards who insisted he was on the wrong train.
Richard Alaoui, managing director of RRA Solutions, had bought two off-peak return tickets to Newcastle at Woking station for travel several weeks later. He and his secretary got on the return train at 1.30pm. He says that as soon as the inspector saw the tickets, he bluntly told them they could not be used on that train.
Despite his pleas that he was never told he had to be on a specific train, the guard demanded £256 in new tickets and penalties. "He was rude in the extreme, and even admitted that our tickets would not have cost any more had we been booked on that train. He was so unpleasant that my secretary burst into tears and was physically sick after we arrived at King's Cross." Mr Alaoui says he won't pay and will see GNER in court. GNER says it is investigating the case. "It is the passenger's responsibility to travel on the right train," says a spokesman.
And a selection here:http://money.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1763778,00.html (note that one applies to Virgin rather than GNER, so I have not pasted it below, click the link above if you want to read it)
Last year I purchased a ticket from Portsmouth to Peterborough via King's Cross. On the day in question there was a fire on the Portsmouth to Waterloo line, which delayed my journey.
I arrived at King's Cross after my usual connection (14.05) had left, so I checked at the information desk to see if my ticket was valid for 15.05. A GNER staff member (who had approached me while I was in the queue) assured me there was no problem with my ticket. Imagine my surprise when, during the journey to Peterborough, the same GNER staff member checked my ticket and told me that I had to pay an excess fare.
I pointed out that I had spoken to him earlier, and he had told me my ticket was valid, but he insisted I pay the excess fare. To minimise my embarrassment I paid up, but promptly complained when I returned home. I received a letter of apology, a cheque for the excess fare and a £20 voucher. Nothing, however, could have compensated for the sheer embarrassment felt during the encounter.
Rob James, Portsmouth
Last year I inadvertently boarded a 17.55 GNER train at York for London King's Cross, my destination, with a first class ticket bought in advance. On the trip I was told this was not the train on my ticket but an earlier train that was delayed. "Didn't hear the announcement?" said the guard. There wasn't one that I heard at York, or at any other destination en route to King's Cross. Also, a GNER uniformed train assistant had seen my first class ticket at York and pointed me to the carriage and my reserved seat. I refused to pay the guard the £120 he demanded. He took my name and address, declining to see my driver's licence. Half an hour later he came back, took me out of the carriage, told me there was no record of me living at my address in York on their software, and if I didn't tell the truth about my identity I'd be arrested at King's Cross.
He called me a "fare dodger" several times and it was humiliating to be "escorted" out of the first class carriage in full view of other passengers. Luckily, I had my driver's licence and could prove he was wrong - but it was awfully embarrassing after a full day lecturing at York University. And, of
course, no apology!
So in the space of 30 minutes a first class paying passenger went from a upright member of the academic community to a "dangerous" individual - a nasty "fare dodger" - the allegation being that I tried to get something for nothing. This is appalling. I've never defrauded transport providers and am the first to say it is wrong to do so. I later discovered all east coast line GNER trains ran late that afternoon. To cut a long story short, six weeks later GNER wrote to me demanding £120 plus £10 admin costs - I refused. In reply, I wrote letters to GNER, its chief executive and my MP. I got a response from my MP, but none from GNER's CEO. The CEO later wrote to my MP admitting just what your article said: they are having problems with customers boarding inadvertently.
The upshot was, they issued me with a letter from their "prosecutions department" reducing the fee to £82 but loosely implying (threatening?) that my credit worthiness may be affected if I was convicted of fraud! I wrote back suggesting we pay £41 each as we were both equally to blame. That was in January. They wrote to me this week (after my prompting phone call) saying the case is closed, thanks for my "cooperation in this case" and trusting that I "will have no more problems when travelling on GNER services". What a cheek!
Overall, I think they're extorting money from the public, they're unreasonable, don't admit their mistakes, and everyone is socially constructed within their system as a potential "fare dodger", irrespective of the facts. How many fare dodgers buy first class tickets in advance? It's made me nervous when travelling on GNER. I'm always worried about having another "big brother" experience.
Dr Kevin Corbett PhD RN, senior research fellow in health and social care, Liverpool John Moores University
My pre-booked mid-day train from Doncaster ran late, so I caught the one in front - also late - at roughly the pre-booked time. Plenty of empty seats, but I was harangued by the ticket collector, who refused to accept that, as GNER had not kept its side of our bargain, I felt justified in what I did. A erbal bottom-smacking in front of the rest of the carriage followed, but at 0-plus that doesn't worry me. I refused to pay. What followed, however, was a letter from GNER, then letters from its outsourced solicitors, none of which even acknowledged my point of view. I phoned GNER at York, pointed out that going to court was stupid and would probably do them no good, and then was given a courteous (and, I felt, sincere) apology.
Midland Mainline, on the other hand, is very understanding, particularly at weekends, when journeys into London to connect with a pre-booked train at St Pancras can be disrupted by engineering works, and only once have I had less than sensible understanding of wrong-trainery.
Terry Cooper, Sheffield
it was dirt cheap, and no you can't get them any more 
) 
