Hungerford to Theale Penalty

[whole diary]

[super tm]

You just had the unfortunate chance of having a miserable guard as most of them can be really friendly.

I fear you are not familiar with this route as most trains do not have a guard.

[James158]

I did not know that the trains on that line didn't have guards. You are right, I have never travelled on the Kennet Valley line before. Perhaps FGW^▸ (First Great Western) should think about putting guards on this line in the future.

[devon_metro]

I did not know that the trains on that line didn't have guards. You are right, I have never travelled on the Kennet Valley line before. Perhaps FGW^▸ (First Great Western) should think about putting guards on this line in the future.

Please explain why that would help?

It's not a guards job to let people off paying a full fare ticket, rules are rules.

[Trowres]

Devon Metro, I fervently hope that you are never in the position of setting / administering revenue collection rules!

 

It doesn't take a long queue to cause problems; experience at my local station is that a single problematic transaction can well exceed the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about)'s guideline. When there's only one window open, and no ticket machine, anxious glances at the departure screen / watch become commonplace. The other day there was a cheer from the queue when the PA^▸ (Public Address) announced the train was running late!

The DfT's guidelines should be immaterial. In the midst of an economic crisis, can a ToC really afford to give passengers such a negative experience that they will think twice about any future discretionary travel?

[devon_metro]

Devon Metro, I fervently hope that you are never in the position of setting / administering revenue collection rules!

Agreed, i'd be ruthless. 

I do have to agree with your point though, perhaps my comment was more general than anything, and in this particular case discretion was required. Even so, there are lots of chancers out there who will try it on and if every RPI^▸ (Revenue Protection Inspector (or Retail Price Index, depending on the context))/guard let people off then the railway would lose quite a lot of revenue.

A difficult one really!

[vacman]

Lets take a realistic look at this, if it were a valid excuse to say "there was a queue" then everyone would say it and thus no-one would ever buy a ticket before travelling!