Great Western Coffee Shop

Trowbridge tix office officaally opens at 0640, my train on Saturdays leaves at 0644, meaning that I can not allow the 'booked' 5 mins to buy tickets. Am I right to get on the train & expect a CDR or nog

That would be an excellent question to ask customer services, I think ... and take a copy of their answer with you.

Got challenged on Saturday by a ATW guard, thought I was over 16. Showed him my school journel and a book but he wasn't having it, so he took down my address and said he would check it out & if I was lying I would be bannished from his services! Shows how confident I was that I was telling the truth. As usual I bailed at Westbury and got on the stopper (07.06 from Westbury) to finsh my journey to Salisbury - in style with Westbury crew!

It's up to the passenger to prove that they are under 16 rather then the guard to prove that your over 16 though!

Hi, Vacman, and welcome to the forums. I much appreciate your postings / information and look forward to much more. 

I have to say in this case that I think that a system that seems to assume that our youth are guilty of attempting to defraud the railway operators unless they can prove their age sends a very bad signal indeed to said youth.  I was brought up to understand that the UK's system assumed innocence until guilt was proven, and the onus of providing proof was on the accuser.  Isn't that practical any longer ... they did run trains in the 1950s, so presumably the same issues arose.

I do agree with you to an extent, however, a child ticket is a discounted ticket (just as if you hold a railcard etc, etc..) and through my personal experience I find that there are a lot of "children" that have tatoo's, piercings everywhere and smoking and drinking that get on the train and ask for a child ticket, I have a few tricks that work for catching them out (trade secrets!) and unfortunately I find that most people of that age are trying it on (I'm not sugesting that your one of them Jim!) and you do tend to tar them all with the same brush!

That said, on one occasion I was working a train from Penzance to Exeter, as we arrived at Camborne (fare dodger capital of Britain!) there was about 30 passengers on the platform waiting, there was a group of about 25 "Chavs" and the remaining 5 or so were "respectable" looking people, on going through the train the group of "chavs" all had valid tickets purchased from the booking office, they were polite and well behaved, I then got to the respectable looking family who didn't have tickets and when I charged them the full standard fare (they joined from a staffed station) they got very aggressive and were eventually removed from the train by the Police! It does go to show that we shouldn't stereo type people!
 

I know, but when your 2 years under that age, it is slightly concerning.

Jim, you should see it as an honour.   You're clearly behaving very responsibly - mature beyond your years  ;D

I know what you mean, I was the same at that age!

Thank you ;D