Thanks for explaining 'fine fail' to me, although I can see both sides of the argument here.
On one hand, we have the customer choosing instead to board an earlier service because the one he was booked on left 4 minutes late. On the other, we have a guard being accused of being indiscreet when he is probably only doing his job.
The fact is these tickets are poorly advertised wherever you go and we have probably one of the most complex ticketing systems in the whole of Europe. I hold my hands up that I've boarded the wrong train on an Advance ticket and was chastised for it, but the guard was polite and explained the rules. This would've been far better had I known about the rules regarding Advance tickets prior to boarding.
We're not asking for measures that 'pander to those who break the terms of their tickets'. Better explanations about the rules of each of these individual tickets, coupled with the do's/don'ts associated with them, would make both passenger's journeys and guard's jobs easier. It isn't a big ask, just more of a big do from those that seem reluctant to give explanations about the tickets and leave them to the guards instead.
In the end, we all win, something which, IMO, is rare given the madness of our current ticketing system.
