To want to buy a train ticket?

[Trillian]

So today I get to the station to find the self service ticket machine does not like my money and spits it out as I had the right money for the ticket I was a bit stuck, I had no other coins to put in.
So train pulls in and I see ticket inspector on train so I think fine I can get a ticket from him.... I get in to the carriage he is in, walk straight up to him and say please can I have ticket from here to xxxx holding out money ticket machine rejected.
He says why don't you have a ticket, I explain that the machine would not take my money but as I saw him on the train I knew he could sell me one.

He then tells me that it is an offense to to travel without a ticket, um yes this is why I am trying to buy one and says he is going to fine me £20...

Now I do this journey every week and every week I have a ticket, I have seen no end of people buy a ticket on the train and once when I managed to lose my ticket I was able to get on from the guard on the train, so I ask why as I was clearly willing to get a ticket he was trying to fine me £20, he said I have to.
Um no you don't you can sell me the ticket I was not able to get at the station as your ticket machine would not accept the money.
Then he gets his little pad out and ask for my name and address, NO I am not going to tell you that, well I will call the police, you go ahead and do that.
You need a ticket he says, I know says I and I am trying to get one and have been since I got to the station!!!!

So this goes on and on and in the end he sells me a ticket,

Now I know I need a ticket, I always have a ticket, and I was trying to get a ticket.

AIBU TO THINK THIS WAS JUST TOO JOBSWORTH FOR WORDS,

I can not get a ticket from a machine that is not working right, there is nowhere else to get a ticket and I have got in the coach where the inspector is with the right amount of fair and said "hello I need a ticket" so I am clearly not trying to dodge a £4 fair

He then moves on to another couple of people who have got on while he is telling my I am being fined and ask them for tickets they do not have them and they do not have any money, so he tries to fine them they give him a load of stick and abuse him racially then jump off at the next stop and do a runner! AIBU in thinking this is the sort of person he should be going all jobsworth on.

so, he should somehow magically know that you were actually trying to buy a ticket (if that bit is true) and these others were not?

sounds like he was doing his job properly, and got a load of abuse for it.

LLbeanj.

I had the money for a ticket

I walked straight up to him to get one and he saw me get on the train and do this

So as I was there and you were not I think I know what happened, If I was going to avoid my fare I could have got in a coach he was not in, I could have sat in the toilet, and as the other people were on the train and had NO money for a ticket I think it is quite clear that they were not going to buy a ticket.

Also I was polite and calm and did not call him a black n*gger cunt and do a runner from the train.

I think that as he sold me the bloody ticket in the end he could have just done that in the first place. When I got off at the station I was going to (that has a ticket office) I ask them what one was supposed to do if you were unable to get a ticket at the station and they said "oh you can get one on the train from the guard!!!!"

So clearly as I was trying to pay for a ticket as soon as I got on the train, and had money to do so, and the only reason I did not have one was because I could not get one from a faulty machine, I should have just been sold a ticket.

He was wrong and you were right I am pretty sure.

It's not against the law to travel without a ticket.

I wish I could remember the actual detail, which I read only recently, but I am sure YANBU.

'black n*gger cunt' WTF!?

Nagoo, that is what the two lads that had no ticket and no money for one called him

I did also tell the people at the ticket office where I inquired about how one gets a ticket when the machine is not working that I had witnessed them abuse him in this way and was willing to leave a number if there was any likely hood of them catching up with them but they just said it goes with the job .

I do still feel he was a jobs worth not to just sell me the ticket though when clearly as I was trying to buy one I was not a fare dodger.

I think YANBU, but it does depend on the company policy- he may just have been trying to do his job. I know at my local station if you can't get a ticket you need to get a permit to travel (there is a machine on the platform and you can put in any amount). You should write to the train company and ask what their policy is with regards to buying on the train. If you have seen people buying them before then either they have recently changed their policy or he is in the wrong.

YA completely NBU. I can see why he gets a bit pissed off if he's getting a load of abuse but he's meant to sell you a ticket. It's his sodding job!

(am scarred for life by the time the same thing happened to me, and the guard not only refused to sell me a ticket (£1.55, two stops on the York/Leeds line) but then followed me off the train in Leeds and tried to prevent the ticket office selling me a ticket as well. Completely mental.)

Ah I see Trillian

If there is notification on the station that it is subject to penalty fares then it;s his job to penalty fare you if you board without a ticket.

however this does not apply if there is no facility to buy before you board the train i.e. the machine is out or order and no ticket office is open.

I am sure I read an article recently that stated they get bonuses for giving fines - it explained all the rules on buying tickets from machines etc and the max time you should be expected to queue (think it was as short as 5 mins!) Will try and find it.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/7093686/Ticket-collectors-getting-com mission-on-penalty-fares.html

I was right but I'm not great at putting links in from netbook - sorry!

Hope this helps MrsSnaplegs.

he was being totally U and a right twat if you ask me!! In our area you can't buy a ticket on the train and have to buy it before you get on otherwise you get a fine. If they have the facility to let you buy them on the train where you are though, everything he said was completely pointless! I guess he just couldn't be arsed!

Think he thought you were an easy target tbh, little did he know

absolutely yanbu -

the machines at our station are often out of order and the ticket office closed. What on earth are you supposed to do at that point - go home and say 'oh sorry I couldnt work today as I couldnt get a ticket'?

can you tell it drives me batty?

It sounds like he has a pretty horrible job, but once you explained that the ticket macine was not working (= no facilities to purchase a ticket before boarding) he should have just sold you the ticket and moved on, not given you a lecture on the rules.

OP, I completely sympathise, given that you're an honest person who isn't fare-dodging. I can also see how difficult it is nowadays to catch people who are trying to avoid paying, but you were offering him the money, right?

It enrages me that train companies are trying to criminalise people when their own machines etc don't work. In our station the machine's often out of order & only one ticket-window's staffed - they expect you to miss trains you need to get, so you can stay in a huge queue & buy a ticket. They're not interested in your needs as a passenger - sorry, customer. Grrr!

This is one of my hobby-horses so will stop now in case I start foaming at the mouth....