Unpaid Travel

[cjp]

Yesterday I forgot to pick up my Oyster PAYG and I caught the 0525 from Southall by the skin of my teeth. The two carriage train which started, I think, from Didcot was surprisingly well patronised and ran on the fast rather the relief lines.
The barriers at Paddington were open and no one was around and, because I had then to rush onwards to make my connection at Liverpool Street, FGW lost out. Having a slight pricking of my conscience about matters do you think it would it be cost effective for FGW if I sent them the five pounds? I would like to do it this way rather than just buy a ticket and throw it away so that they know of the passenger loads etc and the revenue they were not getting by having the gates open and unstaffed.

It was also remarkable that on my late return at Liverpool Street around 2300 the barriers there were in operation and well staffed yet at Paddington it was again open house (although I did touch in and use my Freedom Pass).

FGW seem to have made a cost decision about early morning and late evening revenue collection that others have not.

An alternative is to do nothing which does have a certain appeal.

 

[Urban Gateline]

That's very noble of you to still consider paying the fare due long after the Journey has finished! I wouldn't be surprised if many others on that train were ticketless too, they probably know it will get into Paddington before the barriers are put into operation! (around 6am I'd have thought)

This is what RPI's exist for though, they could well have targeted this train, as there were likely working TVM's at most stations so passengers would have had no excuse to board ticketless unless their ticket wasn't available on the TVM. Even what you did made you liable to a Penalty Fare or a byelaw 18(1) prosecution as you boarded at Southall, where ticket issuing facilities exist, without a valid ticket.

You are right about different TOC's taking different approaches, FGW might rely more on onboard inspections as they are more of a long-distance TOC than GA. LM and SWT aren't particularly good at manning barriers either whilst LOROL and Southern do well so it does depend on the TOC's attitude to Revenue Protection!

 

[cuccir]

This is how revenue protection works. It's much more efficient for a company to accept that they will lose some revenue on quieter services, as long as punishments are sufficiently high when people are caught without a ticket.

This is why TOCs are often keen to prosecute, even where the fare evaded is low - companies know that it is possible to get away with avoiding fares for quite a long time on multiple journeys, particularly if travelling at quieter hours or on short journeys. Hence too why penalty fares are often quite high, and why TOCs look to reclaim some of the lost revenue via out-of-court settlements or victim surcharges on fines when people are prosecuted. A large percentage of those caught will be regular fare evaders.

I wouldn't contact them - or if I did so, I'd do it anonymously. Effectively, you'd be writing to them to tell them that you'd committed a crime, and be offering them a payment against this which is much lower than a Penalty Fare that you could have received on the day, or any court-imposed fine. If your conscience has caught up with you, the best bet would be to buy a ticket from the TVM next time you travel AND use your Oyster as well - they get data that is approximately correct, and you have paid them for your travel, albeit a day or two late!

 

[Romilly]

As to cost-effectiveness, I strongly suspect the cost of processing a non-routine payment would substantially eat into the £5 even if it didn't exhaust it - I'm sure it would be much better for the company if you were to pay what you owe by buying a ticket from a TVM that you then don't use.

 

[Flamingo]

I think that the charity FGW are currently supporting is Macmillan... http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Donate/

 

[cjp]

This is how revenue protection works. It's much more efficient for a company to accept that they will lose some revenue on quieter services, as long as punishments are sufficiently high when people are caught without a ticket.

I wouldn't contact them - or if I did so, I'd do it anonymously. Effectively, you'd be writing to them to tell them that you'd committed a crime, and be offering them a payment against this which is much lower than a Penalty Fare that you could have received on the day, or any court-imposed fine. If your conscience has caught up with you, the best bet would be to buy a ticket from the TVM next time you travel AND use your Oyster as well - they get data that is approximately correct, and you have paid them for your travel, albeit a day or two late!

Whilst I quite like the idea of using the Oyster to give them the money as I have no foreseeable plans to get up and on the 0525 again the data would quite wrong (the potential fare loss was a large part of what I wanted to point out to FGW). The cycle ride to the station was a lot faster than usual and boy was I glad I had got things ready the night before

And thanks Flamingo for your suggestion.

Some asides....

Kudos to the many rail staff who do regularly start so early - the driver of the 0525 must have booked on at silly o'clock.

TVM at Southall does not take cash.

Perhaps no one should comment on this but do FGW RPI bods, which seem few and far between, ever start that early or finish that late?

 

[455driver]

Stick it in the bank so when you travel for free and get caught you can use it as part payment towards the penalty fare/ Court imposed fine!

 

[Deerfold]

Kudos to the many rail staff who do regularly start so early - the driver of the 0525 must have booked on at silly o'clock.

Given that train starts from Oxford at 0400, I'd imagine so.

 

[Flamingo]

I've had turns starting at 02.50, and finishing at 03.30. Unfortunately not the same turn!