SouthEastern High Speed upgrade

[Seaeagle]

I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this. Recently I had to use the SE High Speed from Chatham to London. As I already hold a priv season ticket from Chatham to London terminals, (not valid on HS1) I buy a priv upgrade at 90p. I arrived at Chatham ticket office 13 minutes prior to the train departing and found a queue caused by someone trying to get a refund. I waited in the queue until the train was arriving, but the queue still had not moved so I left and boarded the train. At this point I haven't boarded the train without a valid ticket as you only need the upgrade beyond Gravesend. I went to find the conductor on the train to buy an upgrade, but she said that she didn't have a working ticket machine, and told me to buy the upgrade on arrival in London. Of course on arrival in London the jobsworth on the barrier refused to sell me an upgrade, instead want to take my details and accused me of fare evasion. I won't say how things turned out, just want people's views.

 

[crehld]

The guard on the train gave you permission to purchase the upgrade at your destination. A byelaw prosecution cannot succeed. I'm assuming you actively approached the guard while your ticket was still valid? This to me would demonstrate intent to pay the fare, and so a Regulation of Railways Act prosecution cannot succeed.

 

[andrewkeith5]

You would probably want to formally request the CCTV from the train the prove you went and found the guard and they turned you away just to be sure you've got all the evidence (and the ticket office, why not? If anything it's mildly amusing watching yourself on CCTV!), but I can't see them being able to prosecute you for anything.

Sounds to me like Southeastern have managed to comprehensively let you down twice and are trying to make out that it's your fault.... Which given their history of being absolutely useless at all things ticketing on High Speed, I can't say I'm too surprised about

 

[Seaeagle]

The guard on the train gave you permission to purchase the upgrade at your destination. A byelaw prosecution cannot succeed. I'm assuming you actively approached the guard while your ticket was still valid? This to me would demonstrate intent to pay the fare, and so a Regulation of Railways Act prosecution cannot succeed.

Yes the first thing I did was to find the guard. When I've paid a thousand pounds for a season ticket, I'm hardly going to risk losing my priv over a 90 pence upgrade. Seemingly a lot of the staff on the gateline at St Pancras seem to think that they are above everybody else and do as they see fit. As things turned out, there will be no prosecution as when I started to phone the BTP the member of staff let me proceed!

 

[JaJaWa]

The staff at St Pancras International High Speed are known for behaving unacceptably. Do they have impossible targets of extra revenue to generate? I've not experienced a similar attitude from any other member of railway staff.

 

[Clip]

Yes the first thing I did was to find the guard. When I've paid a thousand pounds for a season ticket, I'm hardly going to risk losing my priv over a 90 pence upgrade. Seemingly a lot of the staff on the gateline at St Pancras seem to think that they are above everybody else and do as they see fit. As things turned out, there will be no prosecution as when I started to phone the BTP the member of staff let me proceed!

[pedant] its not 'thousands' at all [/pedant]

but yes the staff there can be a bit funny for some reason and even after speaking to some of their managers over the years I still don't know why either.

You say you found the guard so why was there a need to phone the BTP? Surely just ask for their manager first to sort out?

 

[Seaeagle]

[pedant] its not 'thousands' at all [/pedant]

but yes the staff there can be a bit funny for some reason and even after speaking to some of their managers over the years I still don't know why either.

You say you found the guard so why was there a need to phone the BTP? Surely just ask for their manager first to sort out?

I didn't say 'thousands', I said 'A' thousand pounds, singular not plural.
The member of staff at the gatelane refused to listen to anything I said, so the easiest way was to get on the internal phone to the BTP. As I said earlier, the staff there think they are above everybody else, and what anyone else thinks doesn't matter.

 

[gray1404]

I think this matter needs reporting to South Eastern to be honest.

 

[talldave]

I didn't say 'thousands', I said 'A' thousand pounds, singular not plural.
The member of staff at the gatelane refused to listen to anything I said, so the easiest way was to get on the internal phone to the BTP. As I said earlier, the staff there think they are above everybody else, and what anyone else thinks doesn't matter.

Seems to be the case, they really do think HS1 is something special. Reminds me of the smug, superior Gatwick Express gestapo I used to deal with, who also didn't understand ticketing!!