Lack of Ticket Inspector?

[exile]

I saw an original method of avoiding paying today - man and a woman locked in the toilet for the entire journey. Or is there another explanation?

 

[Flamingo]

I saw an original method of avoiding paying today - man and a woman locked in the toilet for the entire journey. Or is there another explanation?

We call that travelling toilet class.

I once had a case where somebody travelled all the way from Cardiff to London locked in the toilets in 1st class. They were done for a 1st class ticket in London, as they had done their journey in a 1st class carriage!

 

[Deerfold]

I saw an original method of avoiding paying today - man and a woman locked in the toilet for the entire journey. Or is there another explanation?

I don't think that's a particularly original one.

 

[142094]

Easiest thing would have been to buy a ticket another day for the same value, then just rip it up. I also doubt that TOCs want to get cheques in the post, due to the security issues regarding their handling (plus I thought you could no longer pay for tickets at stations using a cheque?).

 

[district]

Let's turn this round. What will you do if they don't cash your cheque? Will it then be ok to get away with a free journey? What you have done is admirable, but it really does go beyond what can reasonably be expected. The TOC just has to make some effort to enable collection of the fares due without the passenger having to resort to spending 50p on a stamp. If they have decided that it isn't cost effective for them to do so, then they have in effect given permission for people to take a free ride.

Then I have used all available means to pay the fare.

1. Attempted to buy a ticket at the station before I travelled
2. Attempted to buy a ticket onboard
3. Attempted to buy a ticket at the destination after I had finished travelling
4. Sent the TOC the fare

I have now done everything I could have possibly done to pay the fare.

Seriously, I'm not having a go at what you've done, that was absolutely the right thing to satisfy your conscience, but you have to understand that if the TOC makes no effort whatsoever to collect the fare they have to accept people will ride for free.

I appreciate that.

Please don't make out every other person who doesn't go to extra-ordinary lengths to pay the fare is a criminal. They are not.

I am not trying to say that everyone who doesn't send the money to the TOC is a criminal, I was expressing how I thought cuccir's comments were strange because I wanted to pay the fare for the journey I had taken.

If you felt guilty for not making an offer to the TOC, then I would have thought a request for an invoice, providing details of the journey may be appropriate. It's beyond any obligations though IMO.

I gave them the details of the trains and the fare should have been paid. I appreciate that others won't do this.

 

[WelshBluebird]

So it's OK to get away with a free journey then?

If the train company decide that they will not give you a chance to pay for your journey, then yes. That is their problem, not yours.

 

[34D]

I am not trying to say that everyone who doesn't send the money to the TOC is a criminal, I was expressing how I thought cuccir's comments were strange because I wanted to pay the fare for the journey I had taken.

Please appreciate that for many of us who are struggling in this recession, reading your tales of obviously having money to burn is like a slap in the face for us.

Yes, you may of course do what you want and what you feel is right, but don't expect others to approve or agree.

 

[Deerfold]

Please appreciate that for many of us who are struggling in this recession, reading your tales of obviously having money to burn is like a slap in the face for us.

Yes, you may of course do what you want and what you feel is right, but don't expect others to approve or agree.

I wouldn't go to those extremes but I don't see why district should be criticised for it - presumably you'd expect to have to pay for a journey so it's not as if you're paying extra.

 

[142094]

Was talking to someone once who was travelling on a service between two stations without ticket offices/TVMs, and if their fare wasn't collected on board, they used to give the money to charity.

 

[cuccir]

I wouldn't go to those extremes but I don't see why district should be criticised for it - presumably you'd expect to have to pay for a journey so it's not as if you're paying extra.

I really wasn't trying to criticize District before, and if he wants to go to extremes to pay then let him. What I originally called 'bizzare' was not the act of paying per se, but:

The fact is that I had used a service and not paid for it. The train is not a 'social service' as should be paid for at all costs.

The implication seeming to be that it is more correct to pay a private company than if the service was publicly run. I wanted to argue that surely if a private company has decided to cut costs on revenue collection then that's their decision: but that any sort of 'social service' would be publicly run and that not paying would therefore be stealing from the taxpayer.

There's also the point that while TOCs are cutting back on ticket office opening hours, paying for journeys after-the-fact is, unintentionally, subsidising job cuts. Now I'm sure that so few people do it that, in practice, it has no effect, but if this was a widespread thing, then it would result in more people losing their jobs, as the cost to TOCs of reducing booking office hours would be less.

But the truth is that the closing of booking offices or reduction in their hours involves a range of social/economic/political features. No criticism of the act of sending a cheque to the TOC was intended, in and of itself, but I would object to the argument that it is unproblematically the 'right thing to do': the waters are much muddier.
--
PS of course there is a wider problem when threads descending into an argument about moral principles, there becomes less and less chance of agreement or people changing their view (I am aware I am guilty in contributing to this!)...

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . .
PS of course there is a wider problem when threads descending into an argument about moral principles, there becomes less and less chance of agreement or people changing their view
. . . .

Some of us would consider that a debate which moves into morality and principles has ascended to that domain, and not descended.

[But now I have reversed your intellectual ascent with my linguistic pedantry!]

Anyway, I have been interested to follow this discussion. I know many on here would be concerned (if not angered) if there was a failure by any Railway employer to pay any of their staff (even if the staff were inactive in collecting their pay). The arguments for treating a passenger who fails to pay a fare (even if the Operators are inactive in collecing fares) any differently are making interesting reading.

 

[CC 72100]

We call that travelling toilet class.

I once had a case where somebody travelled all the way from Cardiff to London locked in the toilets in 1st class. They were done for a 1st class ticket in London, as they had done their journey in a 1st class carriage!

Love it!

Saw 3 people fit into a Turbostar toilet Gloucester to Cheltenham a couple of months back. Was just hoping that the TM would pass through, but perhaps I was expecting a bit much in 10 minutes! They got away with that one, but who knows, they may not be so lucky the next time :roll:

 

[Flamingo]

Love it!

Saw 3 people fit into a Turbostar toilet Gloucester to Cheltenham a couple of months back. Was just hoping that the TM would pass through, but perhaps I was expecting a bit much in 10 minutes! They got away with that one, but who knows, they may not be so lucky the next time :roll:

We are in the process of barriering both of them. It will help during working hours when they are manned.

 

[district]

Please appreciate that for many of us who are struggling in this recession, reading your tales of obviously having money to burn is like a slap in the face for us.

Yes, you may of course do what you want and what you feel is right, but don't expect others to approve or agree.

I certainly don't have money to burn. I come from a working class family, my parents are both unemployed (my father having been made redundant). I am in a low paid job in the fast food industry.

However, I chose to take the train instead of walking, driving, taking the bus etc, and I had the correct fare to pay. I've not lost out on anything by paying my fare in this way. I would have paid on the train, I couldn't, I've still paid.

Was talking to someone once who was travelling on a service between two stations without ticket offices/TVMs, and if their fare wasn't collected on board, they used to give the money to charity.

That's such a lovely idea