Couple fined for getting off train two stops early. Thoughts?

vonhelmet said:
They broke the terms and conditions of the ticket. Fair play.
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This, as long as the T&Cs were made clear when purchasing the ticket. It wouldn't be reasonable to expect passengers to know that cutting your journey short could just as easily result in a penalty fare as staying on board past your assigned destination.
 
"16. Starting, breaking or ending a journey at intermediate stations
You may start, or break and resume, a journey (in either direction in the case of a return ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as the ticket you hold is valid for the trains you want to use. You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return ticket) before the destination shown on the ticket. However, these rights may not apply to some types of tickets for which a break of journey is prohibited, in which case the relevant Train Companies will make this clear in their notices and other publications."
 
I could understand if they got off to get on a later train and want to use the same ticket, but getting off to walk out and go home? The train company should be thanking them! Saves that tiny bit of weight.
 
One More Solo said:
these rights may not apply to some types of tickets for which a break of journey is prohibited, in which case the relevant Train Companies will make this clear in their notices and other publications."
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Unless the news story is trying to "make a story" by not giving all the info then it wasn't a "break" in the journey at all.

You, according to that rule, ARE however, allowed to "end" it early it would seem.
That's how I read it any way
 
The idea I assume is to get more people on the "express" trains which don't stop at most of the inbetween stations so the few trains they send out that stop at a heck of a lot more places, which takes a lot longer are less busy and they can send out less of the slow ass, get in the way, expensive to run trains.

What they should have really done is made the tickets for express trains only, I'm only guessing here, I assume there are express trains with a lot less stops, and then make sure the ticket is only valid for those trains.

I see why the people running the trains do it, and I can see why they bought discounted tickets, and it is madness to not let someone off a train early, its hurting no one at all. However the ticket should just be made not valid for that train at all if they want to do a discounted service.

While they did infact buy the wrong ticket, either accidentally, or because they knew how to get the cheapest ticket price and purposefully were breaking the terms, the guy should have simply let them leave without fine and a warning to not do so again in the future.

Thats the problem with society, people get punished for making genuine mistakes now, as opposed to being punished fairly, everyones looking to screw everyone for every last penny when its allowed rather than when they think its necessary.

Then again they might purposefully do this 5 times a week and have not gotten caught before and knew exactly what they were doing, hard to know.
 
shimy182 said:
On a side note, is this allowed for the funfares offered from national express? Im sure those fares only exist when going to certain destinations ie city centres.
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Not for the Airports which is where most people try to pull a fast one. The fun-fares are discounted for specific journeys and if you cut short your journey, say for example you paid £4.50 to from Southampton to London Central but got off at Heathrow you would be required to pay the difference in the fares (i.e., one standard Southampton to Heathrow £16.00) and a standard amendment fee (I think it's £10).

If you wanted to get off at any non-Airport stop that is fine as long as you inform the Driver that you wish to do so BEFORE he puts your luggage in the hold and you are aware that if you resume your journey later then your seat is not guaranteed.

As with the OP, the T&Cs of discounted tickets are there to be followed, abide by them or buy the correct ticket and pay the correct fare.
 
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If they were attempting to break up the journey into two segments then it's a breach of the T&Cs and a penalty of some form may be merited. If however they simply chose to get off the train early and find another way to their destination then a fine is not merited and it's unethical even if it isn't illegal.
 
The situation clearly depends on what the people were ending the journey short for.

Whilst I agree it is 100% wrong to penalise someone because they changed their mind and decided to get off the train early, they regulations are there for a reason, there are discount fares offered on certain routes to try and increase train usage of the routes, it has been illegal for a long time to use a discount ticket to get a discount rate when it isn't offered for your route.

This also applies (with more obvious reasoning) for people who board a train late, say if Portsmouth>Cardiff was discounted yet Salisbury>Cardiff was not then buying a ticket from Portsmouth and travelling from Salisbury would not be allowed.
The discount tickets are there for a reason, and the rules are there to stop people abusing them.

If said people^^ were truly not trying to abuse the system then they should have been offered to be able to buy tickets back to their station (Eastleigh) from their end destination (Southampton), which would have only been a few quid and would have been a legitimate journey.
 
As Miss Clark quite rightly said, utter madness!!!

Personally, if I was finishing my journey x stops early, I wouldn't have paid the fine. Let them arrest me and have a court sort it out. I think, or rather hope they'd see the sense!
 
scorza said:
Totally illogical and totally sums up Britain's transport system today :mad:
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What?

If I said 'I'll sell you a DVD of ghostbusters for £3 if you watch it to the end on your first viewing, otherwise it's a tenner'

Then you say 'ok here's 3 quid', then after 20 minutes turn it off .. You've breached your contract. Obviously.

When you see a silly contract you either PARTICIPATE or DON'T PARTICIPATE! Not 'we'll have the cheapo tickets but not bother with our part of the deal'.

Isn't this stuff obvious to everyone?

Hell, just off the top of my head, the ticket prices could be being subbed by the Southampton council or Southampton businesses to promote businesses THERE .. NOT 2 STOPS EARLIER ..

Or discounted by the train company SPECIFICALLY to try and tempt London/Southampton road commuters - show them how easy the train journey is, and you've got new customers long term.

Or there to allow people to get to a specific event in Southampton for cheap .. some boat race, biggest event in the city for 30 years, but no - Mr and Mrs stupid take up 2 valuable cheap seats and never had any intention of getting to the city or the event.

Or there as a 'market analysis' to see how many people are being put off specifically the london/southampton journey just because of the normal price ..

Or, hell, central government was going to force them to shut down Southampton Railway station unless they got 30% more passengers through the platforms within 3 months, hence the sale

or or or or or ..

IN other words, someone is PAYING for the ticket price reduction, to get more people SPECIFICALLY to Southampton on train. OBVIOUSLY they have a reason for doing so, otherwise they wouldn't have done it! Isn't this school-boy stuff? Yet folks here are like 'I just don't understand .. they must be silly billies to not let people get off early for the Southampton price' .. does no-one even study simple business models any more :)

Seriously, isn't this kind of stuff obvious? You don't sign a contract then think 'Ach - they shouldn't mind if I breach it, it seems ok to break my word I reckon..'. That's stupid. The people who say the 'offer' was stupid haven't even analysed the issue and think it's inconceivable the rule exists FOR AN ACTUAL REASON AT ALL. Which, in my book, makes them the dafties!
 
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britboy4321 said:
What?

If I said 'I'll sell you a DVD of ghostbusters for £3 if you watch it to the end on your first viewing, otherwise it's a tenner'

Then you say 'ok here's 3 quid', then after 20 minutes turn it off .. You've breached your contract. Obviously.

When you see a silly contract you either PARTICIPATE or DON'T PARTICIPATE! Not 'we'll have the cheapo tickets but not bother with our part of the deal'.
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The issue is, were those terms and conditions clear? It hardly makes sense that you would have to pay a massive fine in comparison to your ticket if you get off your train early.

In fact, I would imagine that this may even come under the unfair terms in contract since it places an unfair burden on the passenger compared to the train company. If the train had broken down before Southampton, would they have received £114 in compensation?
 
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