Rail passenger landed with huge ^1,048 bill after getting on the wrong train

[whole diary]

[grahame]

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-10-08/rail-passenger-landed-with-huge-1-048-bill-after-getting-on-the-wrong-train/

Rail passenger landed with huge ^1,048 bill after getting on the wrong train

A shocked rail passenger was handed a huge ^1,048 bill by ticket inspectors after he and his family got on the wrong train.

The flustered passenger was travelling from Birmingham New Street to London Euston with 38 family and friends who had each bought London Midland only tickets. But they accidentally boarded the faster, and more expensive, Virgin Trains service.

Ticket inspectors discovered the family's mistake on the 10.30am service on Monday when it pulled into Coventry.

(article continues)

[IndustryInsider]

Which works out at an excess of under ^27 per person.  Doesn't sound so huge when you describe it like that though. 

[ChrisB]

They gave the group the option of paying ^800 to travel to the next stop - 100 miles away in Watford or face an even heftier fine and prosecution through the courts.

So is the 'fine', ^1048 or ^800.....? big difference.

[LiskeardRich]

They gave the group the option of paying ^800 to travel to the next stop - 100 miles away in Watford or face an even heftier fine and prosecution through the courts.

So is the 'fine', ^1048 or ^800.....? big difference.

Does the ^1048 bill include the original tickets plus the excess?

[ChrisB]

Oh probably, in which case it isn't a fine. Just total cost of the trip. Less than 38 x anytime fare too, so not really astronomical

[trainbuff]

I believe on Train Operating Company specific ticks as these were, the correct procedure is not to excess them at all as they are non transferable! Also announcements are made at Birmingham New Street particularly for Virgin Trains stating that London Midland Tickets are not accepted.

I know that makes me a bit of a pain but if rules are enforced rigidly, as I would expect with Revenue Protection, then this is the fact. Feel free to lynch me but I am really just playing Devil's Advocate!

[JayMac]

The correct procedure is whatever the TM^▸ (Train Manager, or Ticket Machine, or Temple Meads (Bristol), depending on context) deems appropriate under the circumstances. They have the right to use discretion. This may well have been an innocent mistake made by the group leader (who could well have been holding all the tickets, with the rest of the group following his lead and boarding the wrong train) and to charge them Any Permitted Anytime Singles of ^82 per adult and ^41 per child would have been harsh in the extreme.

Let's say the group was two third adult, one third child, that would have been...

26 x ^82
13 x ^41

...^2665.

We'll never know how the TM arrived at a figure of ^1048, but this appears to have been agreeable to both parties - we've not heard of complaints from the group leader - so that's all that matters.