Revenue protection - too strict?

[hexagon789]

The thing about this forum is that it is not a representative example of the whole of the country

Of course it's not, the opinion polls on here at election time prove that!

Being on the other side of the coin, being an Authorised Collector of Penalty Fares, I wish the system was tightened up from both ends. There are so many people where we struggle to find out who they actually are and they may get away with it. Equally on the other end of the scale where prosecutions are concerned, perhaps unless major fraud is concerned some of the punishments may be too harsh!

I don't envy you there, having to make so many judgements on the spot is quite a skill. I agree that the system needs tightened up, I'm not sure if the penalties are too harsh though, I'm not decided about that yet.

 

[RJ]

Surely a bigger deterrent would be “Nervous about not having a ticket? If you are caught without a ticket we can take you to court, where you may receive a £1000 fine, 3 months imprisonment and a criminal record which will severely affect your job prospects.” That is the point of prosecuting people right? To serve as a deterrent to others.

The railways probably don't want to scare people off. Some people do see it as a customer focused industry.

 

[richw]

All this sounds very well but based on the cases I have read on this forum I would be genuinely afraid of endeavouring to take a short-notice train journey from anywhere other than a well-staffed major station with an open and manned ticket office.
Otherwise:
- you arrive at the station and the ticket seller is off on a break
- the ticket machine is broken
- the ticket machine won't take cash
- the ticket machine won't sell you the ticket you require
- the ticket machine is on another platform which requires you to exit the station and make a circuitous journey by which time you will have missed your train
- the guard does not come down the train to sell you a ticket

So you arrive at your destination without a ticket. RPIs are waiting to pounce and may well endeavour to prosecute you for the failings and shortcomings of the TOC. I am not a legal expert but I believe that the byelaws governing train travel are extremely biased to the rail operators at the expense of the consumer, which in any other market would be deemed unreasonable, and you CAN end up with a criminal record having had no intention whatsoever of committing a criminal act.

To add to this, the penalty fares station that was previously my local, the station was often single manned, one person doing dispatch and ticket office. No TVM. To prepare for dispatch they often shut the ticket office 5 mins before the train was due. If there was an up and down service, ticket office was shut for 10 mins or more before the later service. I was always nervous what if I met an RPI, would they know the only ticket office staff were also dispatcher? Knowing the situation I always arrived 15-20 mins before the train was due if I could to be safe. But should a passenger arrive this early Just in case they meet a RPI. I don’t think so. It seems inappropriate closing a ticket office 10 mins before a train is due in a penalty zone, which I assume is when most passengers arrive?

 

[Envy123]

I regularly go from New Southgate to Hatfield. Yesterday, the TVM was out of service and the ticket office was closed.

I decided to board the train as normal and explained to the staff at Hatfield about this issue. They were already prepared to sell me a ticket without hassle, as they seemed to have been aware of the issue.

However, I did feel a little scared during my journey to Hatfield, despite knowing that I wasn’t in breach of Byelaw 18 as I couldn’t buy any ticket at New Southgate.