Would you report a 12 year old unattended on a train?

[GloGirl]

If you saw two 12 year olds on a train without a grown up would you report it?

"Any adults who saw two 12-year-olds getting off a train on their own should have questioned that."

YABU - call the police!
YANBU - no, I wouldn't

BBC News - Missing Balloch schoolgirls spent night locked inside train
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-56476935

Really weird story.

Yes of course I do.

In Scotland the rules on travelling without a ticket are different than England. They tell you to get tickets on board/at end of journey if no buying facilities available or no conductor on train.

Where I live if station is closed then I have to buy on train. If no one on train and next station I'm going to is open I don't pay.

Like I said though I've noticed I can buy on the trainline app, so I shall be doing that.

That okay?

GrandTheftWalrus

I regularly get the train from a small village to a major city in England and never buy a ticket before travelling.
The ticket office is only open during rush hour in the morning and Tickets are bought on the train (pre Covid) or, as you say, at the barrier on arrival in the city.

So no different to in Scotland! 😊

When reviewing the CCTV footage ScotRail found that the unaccompanied 12-year-old girls boarded the 10.17pm service from Glasgow to Helensburgh Central.

The company said that it followed safety procedures and conducted two separate checks of the train to ensure nobody was onboard before the service terminated. The girls were not found and the firm says CCTV shows the pair deliberately “hiding underneath the seats” during these checks.

The ScotRail spokesperson said: “An investigation into the incident, which included a review of CCTV, shows that our staff carried out two separate checks of the train and didn’t find the girls on either occasion.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/news/people/two-12-year-old-girls-found-themselves-stuck-on-a-train-in-helensburgh-overnight-after-hiding-from-staff-3174652%3famp

I've only ever seen people in England saying they must have a ticket before travel etc. I assumed they were fined a lot there for rail travel without a ticket.

The most we get "punished" is having to pay full fare on the train and not allowed to have discounts if there are buying facilities available and you've not bothered. So a on peak return instead of an off peak.

I've also went to buy a single on the train and they have given me a return because its cheaper!

GrandTheftWalrus

I've only ever seen people in England saying they must have a ticket before travel etc. I assumed they were fined a lot there for rail travel without a ticket.

No fine.
The ticket conductor walks down the train selling tickets on all the local trains in and out of the city here.
If nobody does this during the journey you buy a ticket from the person way the barrier before leaving the station. You can’t get through the barrier without a ticket.

Well my dad would be in trouble I frequently travelled from Paddington Station to Gloucester from the age of 7 on my own. He was a single dad working long hours and needed childcare, so long ago there was no support locally. I was fine and really enjoyed the independence.

The girls were in Balloch at 4.30pm . The other girl had fallen out with her family and didn't want to go home. This Mum thought she was collecting them for an agreed sleepover back at her home. By planned collection at 7pm they were on the trains I presume. It's a 55 mins journey so the girls must've been actively avoiding parents. There's extra time there- the timeline is too long.
Yes you can easily hide on these trains. The seats have triangular spaces between and so many of them I doubt they'd be checked individually.
I think maybe the silent girl had more to do with this adventure!

No, my daughters were taking a train to school at that age, and would go on the train to their grandmas too.
My dad aged 12 did get asked if she was okay on her own once though when she was going to Grandma's (not in school uniform) as she was quite small for age. She was mortified.
Two girls of that age, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

I definitely don't hold the staff responsible. When you're checking the carriages, you'd be expecting to maybe find someone who had fallen asleep or become unwell in the toilet. I don't think they'd expect to be dealing with people hiding under or between the seats.

So the girls DID hide according to the CCTV Funny that.

Ans one mam has apologised.

Blamey-Louise is apparently still blaming others for not finding them/her night of worry, yadda yadda.

Quite frankly that says a hooer of a lot about her and her lying offspring.

Yes - I’m judging.

@Whenthesunshines

GrandTheftWalrus

I've only ever seen people in England saying they must have a ticket before travel etc. I assumed they were fined a lot there for rail travel without a ticket.

No fine.
The ticket conductor walks down the train selling tickets on all the local trains in and out of the city here.
If nobody does this during the journey you buy a ticket from the person way the barrier before leaving the station. You can’t get through the barrier without a ticket.

Ah fair enough. That's the same here but due to covid there hasn't been enough staff so the barriers are open. Usually closed at rush hour though.

@GrandTheftWalrus

Yes of course I do.

In Scotland the rules on travelling without a ticket are different than England. They tell you to get tickets on board/at end of journey if no buying facilities available or no conductor on train.

Where I live if station is closed then I have to buy on train. If no one on train and next station I'm going to is open I don't pay.

Like I said though I've noticed I can buy on the trainline app, so I shall be doing that.

That okay?

If no facilities exist at the point of origin but do at the destination, you are correct that you should purchase at the destination. That's not what you said you did in your earlier post though. You said that you just walk out through the barriers.

Byelaws are exactly the same in all of GB.

... walk out through the open barriers.

That should say.

If the barriers are open that means no staff to purchase a ticket. I've just bought my ticket for today and I'll get one tomorrow morning. But coming to work last night there was no way to pay. Like I said I have found an app that I can pre buy on.

This is an example of where they could've hidden on the train.

High schools are back part time too in Scotland so if I'd seen kids on the train at an odd time, say at lunchtime, I would have assumed they were travelling in or back from a half day.

Also the trains are dead at the moment, especially at night. And no conductors.

I think the member of staff who turned them away at the ticket barriers in Glasgow needs to explain themselves, but there's a huge difference to how you react to two scared and bewildered 10 yos (which is what was first recorded) and two cheeky 12 yos (which sounds like what might have happened).

That all said, I get it - mum is lashing out because she got the fright of her life.

I don’t blame the staff.

I definitely don’t blame members of the public!

Mum got a big scare, but reaction to blame others is wrong. They got home ok in the end.

GrandTheftWalrus
Ah fair enough. That's the same here but due to covid there hasn't been enough staff so the barriers are open. Usually closed at rush hour though.

Yes same here. So technically you can travel one way without paying if nobody takes payment on train or at platform barrier.
However, usually there is someone there on the way back so before you can get on the platform you have to buy a ticket.
Return tickets are the same as singles here so unless you are making a one way journey and that’s it, you pay the fare on the way in or way out.

For example: These girls got into Glasgow without a ticket but couldn’t get out again without one.

The whole story has annoyed me. I’m so sick hearing of teenagers (or children) messing around on public transport or in public spaces.

Yeah that's same here. I can get to work without paying. Although there has been staff there sometimes especially when the pubs reopened for a bit.

But in the morning I always have to pay.

No, 12 year olds are perfectly capable of getting the train by themselves, I did it regularly from when I started secondary school. The girls were obviously being dicks, as 12 year olds often are. Mum is making a lot of noise but that doesn't change the fact that her daughter was a bit naughty! I reckon Mum's angling for some compensation tbh but I could be wrong.

@HoldontoOneMoreDay I think the member of staff who turned them away at the ticket barriers in Glasgow needs to explain themselves, but there's a huge difference to how you react to two scared and bewildered 10 yos (which is what was first recorded) and two cheeky 12 yos (which sounds like what might have happened)

The member of staff was doing their job! These girls knew what they were doing was wrong - they were hiding from their parents (one had had a fall out with her mum if the later paper accounts are correct) they were travelling unnecessarily during lockdown without tickets and rather than tell the member of staff they needed assistance they waited to ‘sneak’ on another train and subsequently hid from staff on that train according to CCTV. The only wrong doing here was by those girls!

I went on the train every day to school from that age. No I wouldn't question it.

Very odd tale

Common sight on trains in and out of London. Wouldn't bat an eye lid.