To wonder why people were allowed to get away without paying.

[dottypotter]

Yesterday I travelled on the train. There was no office open to buy tickets, and no working ticket machine at the station, it was out of order. The message was to pay on the train. The message was stuck to the ticket machine to pay on train.

Nobody came round asking for money so some people if they were doing a single journey got away without paying. I returned the same day so paid on the way back. No difference between a single and return anyway bar 30p which I found weird.
Is this common, not having a ticket inspector as dont travel often?
Ive always seen people coming round asking for payment on the occassions I have travelled by train?

Where they shortstaffed?😯

It probably was short staffed. I imagine most people return so will pay at that point or have a season ticket. It happens. There's no machine or barrier at my local station so you have to pay on the train. It's actually really annoying if no one comes round as you get stuck behind the barriers and have to pay on the platform to get through. I dont have an issue with paying but there's one guy and thirty passengers. it's less than a quid difference in single/return so not worth dodging.

When I was at college I used to go home on the train at the weekend. On the return journey the train was always heaving with no chance of a seat so the conductor never checked tickets and there was no one at the other end. So I never paid for a ticket going back. You had to pay on the train as there was no way to pay on the platform and it was before online tickets.

This has long been the case on our local line.

They would easily take more money, even after paying the person's wage, if they had someone checking tickets as a matter of routine.

I've been on journeys where my ticket hasn't been checked and I've not had to go through any ticket barriers, where I've got the local train into the City, then interCity train and then back again without being checked.

Why is there hardly any difference between a single and a return fare?

It’s always been that way. They don’t charge much more for a return because most people travel return, and people just wouldn’t pay a huge amount more. And they can’t make single prices any lower because they do have to cover costs.

With more stations being unmanned do they no longer provide assistance for wheelchair users to board the train?

I do a relatively short return journey most days and I could get away with never paying, on either leg, if I was so minded as I've yet to see anyone ever come and check! I do pay but I bet there's plenty sho don't having clocked the lack of inspections!

it's happened me on an airport route a few times! I've gotten there early in morning - self service machines out of order and station no staff / barriers just left open!

so i just got on the train expecting to pay on train or on arrival - but there was no staff on train or at the airport station checking tickets so got a few freebie airport runs

Unless the railway company provides an easy way to make your payment (such as a scannable QR code where you can just choose your end point and make a payment on your phone), they have to accept that some people will be able to make journeys without paying.

Years ago our small rural station brought in a "permit to travel" machine which you had to use if the regular machine was broken (which it regularly was). You could either pay your entire fee on the machine if you had the cash on you, or just put in whatever cash you had. If you were then stopped on the train, or at the barriers when you got off, you just paid the top up amount.

I had quite a few 5p train fares from those machines!

Our station at home has the ticket office regularly shut (countryside stop) so if we're going into Liverpool we all just go into the ticket office there and say we're from our home stop and pay the ticket that way. They're all very aware of it and it's never caused a problem. You can't get out without a ticket for the barriers so it would be hard to escape without paying.

My husband experienced it for the first time when we were last visiting my parents. He got quite stressed about it 😂

There are two train companies running the same route round here, one that does the quick train and one that does the stopper. In the last three years, using the train at least three times a week, the stopper on the way there and the quick train on the way home, I’ve only ever been ticketed on the stopper twice. If I’m going to one of the small unmanned stations on the stopper, which I do quite regularly to visit a family member, I don’t bother buying a ticket.

yes it’s dishonest, and yes it’s ridiculous, but I’m not gonna spend money when I don’t have to. TBH though from the train company’s POV, they probably don’t lose much, because the small unmanned stations without ticket barriers don’t get much footfall. Also, it looks like a conscious decision by the train company, because the trains they are running on that route are brand-new four carriage trains, but the only set of doors where guard has access to lock and unlock the doors is right at the back, and the stations are very close together so the guard can’t be legging it up and down the train every five seconds to check tickets.

Well no one may have travelled free… if they were all travelling both ways like you they likely paid on the return leg.

Ds16 and his friend got a penalty fare in the summer holidays. Our local ticket office was closed and there was a sign saying to pay at their destination. However they had to change train part way through the journey. A ticket inspector got on the second train and fined them both as they should have bought a ticket when they changed.

Our local line is like this. The machine hardly ever works and often the conductor doesn't make it round. When there are big events (local town has a large music festival each summer) they set up a check point at the station for those arriving in the town.

With Scotrail a lot of stations have electronic barriers so if you can't pay at the station or on the train you have to join a queue of around 100 people to get a ticket to get through the barriers at peak times. It's not worth the hassle.

I travel between two cities. There are no conductors on trains but you have to scan your ticket to be able to get though the barriers. I guess you could jump them but there are staff around checking the barriers.

It is 8 minutes between my town's Station and the next one. The ticket officer doesn't have time to make it all the way down the train by the time we get to the next station.

This has always happened - not as standard but occasionally. The idea is that if you more often than not get checked then most people won't take the risk and will have a ticket anyway. They charge enough to cover anyone who gets away without paying. The single/return thing has always been so. All my life which is almost half a century. You've not caught many trains recently or ever.

You can get away with it at some stations round here. My home station doesn’t have barriers and then if you get off at another smaller station without barriers you can travel for free. Although last few times I’ve travelled there’s been a ticket man on the train. But in the past I’ve not paid because there’s been no way for me to pay.

You pre book it :)