Penalty fares on Severn Beach Line

[whole diary]

[Red Squirrel]

I was alerted recently via x/twitter of a passenger receiving a penalty fare for boarding at Clifton Down station without a ticket.

Upon investigating, it became apparent that the Severn Beach line (with the exception of Severn Beach, St Andrews Road, Avonmouth, Shirehampton, Sea Mills and Stapleton Rd - i.e. just over half the stations on the line) is now a Penalty Fares line - and has been since January 2023.

I'd be very interested to know how aware other people were of this change:

• Did you know about this?
• How did you find out?
• When?

To be clear, I absolutely support better revenue protection on this line - ticketless travel has undoubtedly suppressed recorded passenger numbers over the years. I'm just trying to find out how well this change was communicated.

[ChrisB]

I sem to recall it got mentioned on this board when it started or soon after.
Posters must have gone up at every station that it applies to too

[Red Squirrel]

Ah yes - I see it here:

Something of a first for me on the Severn Beach Line.  Announcement today over the public address system by the train manager that this was now a penalty fare line with the new £100 rather than £20 penalty fare in force for those boarding without tickets.  She still seemed to be issuing tickets and the announcement took the form more of a forewarning than one of imminent doom to ticketless passengers that hadn't yet realised this......and yes, I purchased my Totnes return using the platform machine.

There are indeed posters - for example, at Clifton Down there is a poster near one of the three entrances, and at Montpelier there is one at one of the two entrances. In both examples these are unlikely to be noticed by anyone using the alternative entrances, and are not visible from the platform(s).

I wonder for how long they made these announcements on the PA^▸ (Public Address)? I certainly never heard one.

[grahame]

Putting beach*penalty into the deep search box finds (as I write) four threads including the one Red Squirrel has located 

[Red Squirrel]

Ah, that's interesting... one of the other threads is not relevant, but I note that kempis was aware of the change - though a recent conversation with Mrs kempis suggested that she wasn't!

[froome]

I was alerted recently via x/twitter of a passenger receiving a penalty fare for boarding at Clifton Down station without a ticket.

Upon investigating, it became apparent that the Severn Beach line (with the exception of Severn Beach, St Andrews Road, Avonmouth, Shirehampton, Sea Mills and Stapleton Rd - i.e. just over half the stations on the line) is now a Penalty Fares line - and has been since January 2023.

I'd be very interested to know how aware other people were of this change:

• Did you know about this?
• How did you find out?
• When?

Shouldn't Lawrence Hill be on that list? I'm not aware of anywhere you can buy a ticket there, certainly not on the southbound line.

(It is probably a few months since I last used this station, so perhaps this has changed?)

To be clear, I absolutely support better revenue protection on this line - ticketless travel has undoubtedly suppressed recorded passenger numbers over the years. I'm just trying to find out how well this change was communicated.

Edit to clarify quoting - grahame

[froome]

Just noticed the format of my reply has come out rather oddly. My reply concerned Lawrence Hill station, and whether it should also be on the list.

[grahame]

Just noticed the format of my reply has come out rather oddly. My reply concerned Lawrence Hill station, and whether it should also be on the list.

Yeah - quoting and formatting looked a bit odd (easy for that to happen with nested tags).  I have edited it for clarity to show as I think you intended. 

[Red Squirrel]

...
Shouldn't Lawrence Hill be on that list? I'm not aware of anywhere you can buy a ticket there, certainly not on the southbound line.
...

Lawrence Hill is a penalty fare station (see https://bristolrailcampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GWR-Penalty-Fares-Map-From-23-January-2023-v2.pdf). I don't remember seeing a ticket machine there, but it is most likely to be on Platform 1 - so for passengers heading towards Temple Meads, it is only accessible if you can negotiate two flights of steps.

[johnneyw]

...
Shouldn't Lawrence Hill be on that list? I'm not aware of anywhere you can buy a ticket there, certainly not on the southbound line.
...

Lawrence Hill is a penalty fare station (see https://bristolrailcampaign.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GWR-Penalty-Fares-Map-From-23-January-2023-v2.pdf). I don't remember seeing a ticket machine there, but it is most likely to be on Platform 1 - so for passengers heading towards Temple Meads, it is only accessible if you can negotiate two flights of steps.

The GWR online page for Lawrence Hill Station says yes to there being a ticket machine there but no to prepaid ticket collection.  Could it be an older model there than the ones at Redland and Montpelier Stations that do.....when they work....provide this service?

https://www.gwr.com/stations-and-destinations/stations/lawrence-hill