Hello,

I am unable to purchase a ticket at the railway station as the ticket machines are card only and the ticket office is permanently closed.

I approached the guard before boarding the train and asked him if I could buy a ticket. He said yes and told me to board.

When he came through the train, he told me that the battery on his machine had died, so I would have to buy one when I changed at the next station.

When I went to buy a ticket, I was confronted by a member of staff who told me that I would have to pay a penalty fare for travelling without a ticket.

I explained how it was not my fault because there were no facilities to buy a ticket at the station and the guard's machine wasn't working, but I was told that it wasn't relevant because it is an offence to travel without a ticket.

They took my details and told me that, if I wanted to continue my journey, I would have to pay a penalty fare on top of a full price ticket for my journey, with no railcards allowed.

I was told that I could appeal against this. Can somebody help?

Am I likely to get my money back?

Will I be able to get the extra money I had to pay for the ticket back as well, or will it just be the penalty fare?

Not a justified penalty fare, so yes if you complain you should get it repaid. My local station has no ticket office and the machine is often not working. I have never had any problem, as i have always had opportunity to buy a ticket either on train or at final/connecting station. But i think it depends on age and how you explain what happened. I think if you are younger and/or male. you are less likely to be believed.

Suggest you send a formal written complaint to GWR head office. You should explain, giving clear details of your journey and what happened.

Hello there.

I agree with UB, I think it's worth contesting this. GWR should be able to ascertain that there was no way of buying a ticket for cash at the station and that the guard's machine was broken.

HB

Hello there.

 

I agree with UB, I think it's worth contesting this. GWR should be able to ascertain that there was no way of buying a ticket for cash at the station and that the guard's machine was broken.

 

HB

Honeybee is absolutely right.

GWR will know from the monitoring of ticket machines at both ticket offices and on-train whether facilities were available to you or not, so assuming that everything is exactly as you say, there should be no problem at all in resolving this promptly

Good luck