Penalty Fares - what's the point?

[Goatboy]

Again I find myself on a London Midland service out of New Street during the day - plenty of ticket offices open, numerous machines available and clear signage showing that this is a Penalty Fares zone.

What happens when it turns out a passenger opposite has no ticket? No problem, guard simply offers the full range of discounted walk on fares.

Another passenger who will obviously try the same trick next time too - after all, it seems the worst case scenario for fare dodging is being sold the ticket you should have purchased in the first place.

Had he been hit with the Penalty Fare perhaps he might have purchased a ticket next time like the rest of us have to.

 

[bb21]

It is very difficult for a guard, working on his own, to demand a Penalty Fare (assuming he is authorised to issue it) from everyone who is liable for one. Some might turn violent and some might get verbally abusive. Any fare is better than none.

It should not be the responsibility of the guard to enforce Penalty Fares, but teams of RPIs who have proper support and cannot be easily bullied. From what I see, for example, in the West Midlands area, rigid enforcement will probably pay for itself through the number of Penalty Fares issued. The number of people travelling without tickets is quite shocking, yet I have never seen revenue protection staff anywhere when travelling in the West Midlands.

 

[fork]

On EMT, only Revenue Inspectors can issue Penalty Fares, and from your post it sounds like this is also the case with London Midland. The guard should really have offered only undiscounted Anytime fares onboard since the ticket office was open (as per the NRCoC), but they were within their rights to exercise discretion and sell a discounted ticket instead.

 

[muz379]

The problem is being a guard unless all of your colleagues play by the rules and issue penalty fares where authorized or only sell the anytime range of fares then your job in adhering strictly to the rules is going to be extra difficult because people will come to expect you to sell the full range on board and will argue with you forever that you are in the wrong because this might be the first time in months they have come across a guard that has actually adhered to the rules in this fashion .

Another aspect is that I have a blackberry that the company issue me with which I get updates about faults at TVM's and Ticket offices or notices about ticket office closures due to staff shortages . But if someone claims that the TVM at a station was not working , or that the ticket office was closed I have no way of proving that it was because retail control who send out the emails to notify me of such might not be aware of the problem . If anything I am expected to contact them if people claim that TVM's are faulty .
I suppose the guard could insist that they buy an anytime ticket then contact customer service for a refund to the appropriate cheaper fare as customer service will have records about office closures and TVM faults . But this seems very long winded and people will obviously be reluctant to do this . This might even cost the company more to administer in the long run as well .

My personal outlook on it is that when people board at busy stations where I know there might only be one or two ticket office windows , or only one TVM I am happy to sell the full range on board because I dont think people that have turned up in time to buy a ticket should miss a train just because of queues (i know some wont have turned up in enough time but you have to take peoples claims at face value ). It even says in our passenger charter that people should expect to the be served in reasonable times both during and out of peak hours so why should someone miss a train because the company cant satisfy this requirement .

 

[tractakid]

I actually made a mistake today. I boarded the 0634 service at Llandudno without a ticket, as the ticket office was closed. I had forgotten about the newly installed TVM. Last time I used this particular service, on New Year's Day, this was the correct thing to have done. Despite having used the station since and noticing the new TVM, I just did what I had done before and bought from the guard. Not a word was mentioned and all was well. I needed a split ticket so would needed to have seen the guard anyway, but I recognise it was my duty to have bought the first ticket before boarding. I just didn't think at that time in the morning!

It is scary to think that if I had done this at a different station, or with a different guard, I could have been in trouble/received a PF.