Penalty but did not 'join train'

[yorkie]

Surely the person that should deal with rogue employees is the employer?

Yes, you're right. But some employers don't do much because there's no effective Regulator, and no ombudsman with any real powers who actually cares.

I'd be pretty peeved for receiving a penalty fare incorrectly, but that wouldn't then give me an excuse to hurl abuse at the gateline staff.

Of course you're right, but training should be given to avoid situations escalating. If you treat people badly, then some of those people are going to over-react. That doesn't excuse the over-reaction, but sometimes (not always) such over-reactions are foreseeable and avoidable.

 

[swj99]

Sadly there are some rogue revenue inspection officers/inspectors........

In a situation like this it's important to be able to identify the officer / inspector. I would ask for their name, and if they refused or failed to provide this, I would call the police on the basis that they may have been attempting to commit fraud.

 

[VauxhallandI]

Your implication is by referring to the TOC as a "fox", that Southern Trains are encouraging their employees to act in this manner. Is that really the case?

Or do Southern just not care how their employees behave? Or are Southern fully aware of how their employees behave, but know if they try to do anything about it "problems" will occur.

So are the TOCs evil, apathetic, or powerless?

All the same to person at the end of the problem. It's difficult to know from the outside and who is going to go in and found out for us? No-one.

That said, knowing this station myself there is still a whiff of fish about this story.

 

[SouthStand]

Got some proof of that then?
Or is this just the usual keyboard warrior wibble!

If what the OP said is true, then this thread for starters! There are numerous threads on this forum discussing wrongly issued penalty fares and other ticket validity errors lol
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Pretty much.

See my reply to 455driver and stop embarrassing yourself with your "we're rail staff so we're going to batten down the hatches" mentality.

 

[bb21]

If what the OP said is true, then this thread for starters! There are numerous threads on this forum discussing wrongly issued penalty fares and other ticket validity errors lol
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


See my reply to 455driver and stop embarrassing yourself with your "we're rail staff so we're going to batten down the hatches" mentality.

No system is foolproof, and no matter how hard you train your staff, they will get it wrong somewhere, for whatever reason. I don't think any system can be 99.9% accurate however you want to look at it.

While more rigorous training for front-line staff is desirable, what I think the biggest problem is with the whole Penalty Fare system is the arrangement for appeals proceedings. I won't deviate from the current topic but suffice to say that having the supposed "independent" adjudicator run by a party with vested interests (or however else one wishes to dress that up) is plainly wrong and makes a mockery of the whole thing.

 

[Flamingo]

And some people on here wonder why rail staff get assaulted...

Well, just so we know, what do you work at?
So when somebody thumps you we can go "oh well, he had it coming to him".

 

[Clip]

If what the OP said is true, then this thread for starters! There are numerous threads on this forum discussing wrongly issued penalty fares and other ticket validity errors lol
.

Indeed but people are only human and mistakes do get made. Now you try and match the minority mistakes that are made against the complete and utter gay abandon for passengers saying they joined at a station closer to when they get on, for example, and I think you will find out which occurs more than the other.

And maybe, just maybe, if there wasnt a large swathe of the population who think it is fine to try and evade paying their fare we wouldnt have to have such things as penalty fares would we?

 

[yorkie]

Can we please stay on-topic? This thread has nothing to do with people trying to evade fares. The fact that some people evade fares is completely irrelevant to this issue.

Until the OP comes back to us with more information, there isn't much point in discussing this matter further.