Simple questions on here rarely have simple answers!
Going back to the
Railway Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 we find references are generally to 'persons' until we reach those sections to do with carrying passengers (S.86 - S.105), and which begin with a title which refers to 'passengers'
Passengers and goods on railways.
And with respect to the carrying of passengers and goods upon the railway, and the tolls to be taken thereon, be it enacted as follows:
and the first of those clauses uses the term 'passengers':
86 Company to employ locomotive power, carriages, &c.
It shall be lawful for the company to use and employ locomotive engines or other moving power, and carriages and waggons to be drawn or propelled thereby, and to carry and convey upon the railway all such passengers and goods as shall be offered to them for that purpose"
Conversely, where a person is committing an offence, then the word "person" is used again:
104 Detention of offenders.
If any person be discovered, either in or after committing or attempting to commit any such offence as in the preceding enactment mentioned, . . .
but there's an inconsistency. Here we have an offender being described as a 'passenger' and as a 'person':
103 Penalty on passengers practising frauds on the company.
If any person knowingly and wilfully refuse or neglect, on arriving at the point to which he has paid his fare, to quit such carriage, every such person shall for every such offence forfeit a sum not exceeding . . .
Moving on to the
Regulation of Railways Act 1889, We have the same distinction: 'Passengers' have tickets, 'persons' do not, though the distinction is blurred in the oft quoted S.5:
5.2 If a passenger having failed either to produce, or if requested to deliver up, a ticket showing that his fare is paid, or to pay his fare, refuses, on request, by an officer or servant of a railway company, . . .
and then again in the very next section the offender is a 'person':
5.3 If any person :-
(a) travels or attempts to travel on a railway without having previously paid his fare, and with intent to avoid payment thereof, . . .
Coming up to date with the
Railway Byelaws 1965 and
Railway Byelaws 2005, we find only references to 'persons' and not to 'passengers', where neither term are defined.
Turning to case Law, we can find the definition which helps us in another grey area - there are those passengers who neither have a ticket nor are required to hold a ticket: 'gratuitous passengers'. (These might include children under the age at which a ticket is required, staff or other people with passes, permissions or rights to travel, even a child whose parent should have bought a ticket for them but has not done so.). See
Austin vs Great Western Railway 1867. 'Gratuitous Passengers' will not, normally, have any Contractural rights to be conveyed and will not be bound by the
National Rail Conditions of Carriage. However they must be carried by a duty of care in tort and must observe the
Railway Byelaws (which apply to all persons on Railway property).
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