Is it fair to fine £119.50 for getting on the wrong train?

[mollybloom]

Has anybody ever sat on the wrong train by mistakie without realizing it until the ticket got checked and then got fined a hefty £ 119.50 for having done nothing more than misreading the time on the ticket and getting on the wrong train? The departure time on my ticket read 15:40 whilst I had it in my mind that it was 14:40. I only found out that I was on the wrong train when I had to show my ticket. When I was fined a whooping £ 119.50, I felt furious and taken advantage of. I made a small mistake, nobody came to harm (the train was about three quarters empty - which made the whole situation even more pathetic) - and now they try to squeeze the most out of me. Disgusting is too tame a word to describe such behaviour. Has anybody else been in a similar situation?

I had a similar experience. I had a cheap ticket to York (about £30 I think). While I was on the train the ticket inspector asked to see my ticket. I couldn't find it in my bag straightaway but had my ticket receipt which I showed him. He said not good enough and made me pay over £100 on the spot. Just as he was leaving the carriage I found my valid ticket and asked if he could cancel the £100. He sad no and that I should write in to claim a refund. I sent off a claim about a month later (might have been more than a month) but the reply was that I was out of time, so I lost £100. I didn't see anywhere on the website that there was a time limit for requesting refunds.

id not have paid

gone to court

This has happened to me. Exploitative and aggressive and unpleasant. Never used to happen before privatisation with good old British Rail. I had an experience where a train was cancelled, and an announcement at the station told all the passengers that our tickets would be honoured on a train about to leave from another platform. We all piled on. Then the inspector came round and started aggressively bullying everyone into hugely expensive tickets. A man in my carriage collapsed with a suspected heart attack when he was confronted and they had to stop the train so he could be taken off by ambulance. The inspector did stop after that.

Ouch that's a big fine.

On some trains, they do an announcement saying 'please check your tickets now, this is the through train to Edinburgh/the stopping service to Cambourne/whatever', and I think that's good because it reminds you.

They charge because they can, having made it clear what the situation is, but still no fun for you when it is a genuine mistake.

Worth complaining though - my mate was charged a penalty because the guard wouldn't accept her 18-25 railcard because she's 28 (and a student, which means the 18-25 card is valid, but he didn't realize this and asked her her ID to show her age). She got it refunded with a big apology, so they can be decent at times.

YABU. Advance tickets are often really, really cheap and very limited in number. When you buy one, you know they come with strict restrictions - you must be in the right carriage, in the right seat and on the right train.

You were not fined. You were asked to pay a train fare for a train you had no ticket for. You were not trapped on the train the way you would be on a flight. You could have just paid nothing, got off at the next stop and found other means of transportation.

But I do agree that full price train tickets bought on the day are really overpriced for some journeys.

dh recently bought advance tickets to collect at the station. When he got ther the ticket office was closed (a staff member was most unhelpful) and the self service machine was not working.

The ticket inspector had no access to dh's booking (he had an email with a booking reference. I rang up Londond Midland whilst dh was on the train and they said that he either had to buy another ticket at full price or he had to get off the train at the next stop, find the self service machine at that station and get his tickets all during the 4 minutes the train was stopping.

Luckily the macine was right next to the platform the train drew up at.

Wolfhounds story is appalling. In the terms and conditions of all advcance tickets I have brought is says that if a train is cancelled or delayed you can get the next available one.

It isn't really a fine though, is it. You were just charged the non-discounted rate for the journey. Agree it is an absolutely outrageous amount of money, and also agree that the system is so labyrinthine that just the simple fact of having to pay the correct fare for the train you travelled on can seem like a Kafkaesque development.

But it is the rules. It has happened to me too (although I knew I had got on a too-early train and was just winging it).

smileyhappy if your hospital appointment was so important why did you not just buy a ticket to get on the next train - I believe then as your original train was delayed you could have claimed a refund on your original ticket

YABU and YANBU

£119 is a lot for a train ticket, but it wasn't a fine. You'd got cheaper tickets by specifying a train. If you wanted a standard open ticket, you could have bought that one in the first place.

Train fares in this country are such a rip off, I feel cheated on most of my train journeys.

Don't expect any consideration or human kindness from any rail staff, because it is so rare, you'll only ever end up disappointed.

Mo;;y Bloom as people have said get your complaint in, in writing. Mentioning Mumsnet support might help

Ack, I don't blame the staff. They have to do their job: they'd potentially be in serious trouble if they let someone get away with not paying the correct fare. The guard that told me I had to stump up an extra £60 had that wary look that traffic wardens have when carowner approaches as they are writing the ticket -- the look that expects abuse.

I was a model of politeness, of course -- not least because I was concentrating on looking surprised that I was on a disallowed train.

At my local station, I bought a ticket, showed it to the visiting inspector, walked on to the platform, found a lost credit card, walked back off to hand it in to the ticket salesperson, showed my ticket again to get back on to the platform, went into the cafe (which has a second door to the outside so you go through without passing the inspector) came back out, and went to get on the train.

The inspector ran down the platform, attempted to stop me getting on the train, and shouted at me, because he claimed I had come through the cafe to evade paying a fare.

So I do think some of the behaviour is outrageous.

Islandlady - because I was a student at the time, within £25 of my overdraft limit and buying another ticket would have been over £50! Phoned the hospital instead who were lovely and rescheduled appt for me - but still feel it didn't excuse Virgin being so massively unhelpful.

Oh and we did ask about claiming the compensation for delays that they advertise. They told us they had run out of forms. Yes, really.

Sorry smileyhappymummy too quick to judge

I do think that's a real problem, smiley - it's all based on the assumption everyone can is quite rich with little leeway for people who don't have the money. Last November when it was really snowy my train was cancelled and they said I should buy another ticket and they'd refund it ... well, sure, if I had an extra 50 quid after paying for a Youth Hostel stay I hadn't planned, fine!

Appeal. It was a mistake, and people make mistakes.

I also think fines should be a maximum of £20, not fecking over a hundred.

Yukana, it wasn't a fine!

YABU for disputing the cost if the fine. The fines have to be equal to or exceeding the on-the-spot ticket value or else everyone would just chance it, surely? If the full fare is £119.50 but they only fined £20/£30 for not having the relevant ticket, why the hell would anyone bother getting one?

YANBU for being outraged at the ridiculous cost of travelling by train in this country though. If the fares were more reasonable, the fines would be too. The advance fares are the only ones which are halfway sensible, but they come with huge restrictions, as you know. Plus you need to anticipate the journey about 12 weeks ahead, and can't get a refund for changing your mind. Madness.

You can apparently get fined for getting off the train too early with some discounted tickets as well.

We have travelled to London from the Midlands for the past few years for endless appointments at GOSH for DS. The appointments tend to be between 10.30 and 12, so on occasions we have to travel in rush hour. To save money, I gamble on us being clear to return at a certain time - although I am always leave it as late as reasonable, so there's lots of hanging around. On several occasions I've got it wrong and we've missed our train. The Virgin people look down their nose and send you to buy another ticket. It cost me £150 on one occasion.

The 'Train Managers' are god - I've come across one decent one in all the years we've been making the trip. He very kindly let us travel with our tickets, although DS had picked up his sister's railcard rather than his own.

But I'm not a customer that they want to look after, I'm a number who they care little about.

I think that they can be bloody rude and horrible sometimes YANBU to expect them to give you a little leeway.

I was on a train getting home over Christmas when it snowed (worst journey ever) the last straw was when the ticket operator noticed that my railcard was two days out of date (honest mistake I hadn't noticed). I apologised and offered to pay the difference in ticket price but then she looked me in the eye and accused me of lying saying I knew it was out of date. She then threatened to have me cautioned and fined but took the diference in fares in the end. I was so upset that I cried right there on the train.

listen to radio 4 now!!

I'm shocked they charged you tbh. Could you have not just got off?

I got on the wrong train fairly recently, as in completely the wrong train going in the wrong direction. When I was asked for my ticket the mistake was pointed out to me and I got off the train. On the platform there was a group of men who'd also made the same mistake as me, I think there'd been a last minute platform change so it wasn't just me being dense.

I knew I would be expected to pay 60 quid for a new ticket but was really annoyed as I felt it wasn't fair, so when I got on the right train I pretended to be asleep (yes that old trick still works!) and managed to avoid paying. I know some of the men who had made the same mistake as me also got out of paying by hiding in the corridor.