Liverpool-Manchester Piccadilly Query

[M60lad]

Yesterday I bought what I thought was my usual ticket (Adult Single Lime Street-Manchester with Disabled Railcard) from the one of the new machines at Lime Street, everything was going fine until I was on 19:52 Lime Street-Nottingham East Midlands Trains service when during a ticket check it was pointed out I'd bought a Northern only ticket (obviously something new as never noticed the option before) so I had to buy a new ticket now here's the query:

I was still issued a Disabled Railcard Adult Single Lime Street-Manchester by the conductor, now was the conductor right to do this? Only reason I ask is that I thought once your on the train and you've got on at a station with ticket issuing facilities then you can't get discounted tickets on the train, obviously it seems you can unless due to my mistake the conductor knew and was lienient and let me use my Railcard which was very good of them.

 

[robbeech]

I am led to believe you are always allowed to purchase tickets on board with a disabled railcard and should always be offered the discounted fare.
In any case guards will often show discretion when they feel a genuine mistake has occurred. Here is the perfect argument for why being able to excess from a toc restriction should be allowed.

It’s worth looking next time you use that ticket machine how easy it is to spot the restriction (clearly not easy enough else you would have seen it). If it is particularly difficult then it maybe worth contacting the TOC responsible for the machine and politely pointing this out.

 

[Starmill]

If a customer has a disability that means that they might find it difficult to use whatever facilities to buy a ticket are available, such as a ticket machine, then it is indeed standard procedure to issue the cheapest valid tickets on the train.

It could of course be quite rude to ask someone about the finer details of their disability, so the conductor presumably thought it was better tact to offer you the best fare available for your journey than to ask you questions about your disability, which seems like a good course of action to me.

Additionally, as you already had a ticket, but unfortunately it was just the wrong one, they may have a personal policy of only charging the appropriate fare in circumstances where it appears that a genuine mistake has been made. Without asking there's no way to know if they would allow the discount for another type of railcard.

 

[robbeech]

Worth noting that if this had been done with a more expensive ticket you’d be able to apply for a refund on the original one as it would be unused. Of course this incurs a £10 admin fee so the ticket value would have to be worth it.

 

[Starmill]

A Northern Only single with a railcard is £11.50, so in theory if you send the ticket back to the machine operator a refund of £1.50 is due.