No more bunking trains?

[Danny Seagull's Mate]

Just got a £10 fine on the spot for bunking Lancing - Brighton despite my protests Fed them a story about having to rush for the train at Aldrington and assumed I could pay the conductor. What a pile of plop, so if you're late for work and can't find an inspector, you get fined. Be warned.

What were you doing at Aldrington? Did you see Emily

 

[trueblue]

I have no problem with buying a ticket - and I wish everyone else would so us honest people didn't have to subsidise the scroungers!

But - it's very annoying at Brighton where it can easily take twenty minutes to get to the ticket desk. I would always use the automatic machine but they don't have an option offering cheap rates for Network railcards - so it costs me a fiver more every time I'm running late. That is seriously shite.

 

[fatboy]

dont listen to this man. I have not been on a train once with him whereby the tivkets is valid despite paying £30 when we should have caught the 03.27 train.

Buy a ticket you tight pikey!

You will get away with bending the rules.

You won't get away with breaking them!!

 

[Gary Nelson]

so you prefer bending then?

 

[fatboy]

If you hadn't been a fat bastard and wanted to go to every McDonalds on the way to Kings Cross we would have made our train!

 

[Mr Popkins]

the way i look at is that you may bunk the train say 10 times and only get cought once £10 isnt a bad return for not paying say £2.50,9 times, in my case from shoreham,
ive still got away with £12.50 in free travel.
Yes it IS a business, and you should pay, you wouldnt get on a bus or Taxi without paying would you?
if you get cought then just except its hard luck.

 

[fatboy]

Popkins is right.

I've made much more money out of train companies than they have made out of me.

The only thing is, you will get fined £10 on a short journey, but the actual penalty fare is "£10 or double the single fare to the next station, whichever is greatest", and single fare doesn't take into account YP cards or any other discount.


At the end of the day I wouldn't mind paying for a decent service. But we pay the same price for our ticket if the train(s) are late, cancelled, full, dirty, broken etc etc

 

[Gary Nelson]

If you hadn't been a fat bastard and wanted to go to every McDonalds on the way to Kings Cross we would have made our train!

If I remember correctly, we were waiting 6 mintues (which would have meant us catching our train) for a

MCVEGETERIAN SANDWICH

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

I've been in Tokyo way too long.

Tickets for any form of train travel here is so easy and painless, it's almost untrue.

None of this Special Saver or use only at certain times stuff. They have the prices to each destination on the boards above the ticket machines in the stations, so it's just one fare and thats it. No nonsense stuff. The only ticket offices thay have are for the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and with the usual Japanese efficiency you're in and out in no time.

Plus the fact that you cannot get to the platforms without a ticket as the ticket barriers are automated. So you purchase a ticket to get in and you must have that ticket to get out. If your ticket doesn't cover the fare of the journey, the ticket barriers won't let you out, until you've been to the Fare Adjustment machines and paid the difference.

Plus the fact that no self-respecting Japanese person would ever cheat the train companies anyway.

Oh yeah, the trains also run on time as well, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year. They may be expensive, but it's definately a price worth paying.

 

[Storer68]

I'm sory but I don't understand any of the above.............

easy? painless? efficient? honest passengers? run on time

all alien concepts

 

[DTES]

Me, Fatboy and Matt bunked the train from Falmer - Brighton, and just handed in the tickets we'd used to get back from Grimsby a few weeks earlier. And I think they were only valid Grimsby - Kings Cross. Just keep and old ticket handy, they (obviously) don't read what's on it.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

I'm sory but I don't understand any of the above.............

easy? painless? efficient? honest passengers? run on time

all alien concepts

Richard Branson should take a long hard look at the Japanese Rail system. He could learn a bloody lot.

I'm dreading the day I have to move back to the UK.

 

[fatboy]

Japanese trains are timetabled to the nearest 15 SECONDS.

I really do not understand why ours are so shit.

With the new type of train they have invented they could do London to Edinburgh in about 45 minutes whereas it would take one of our trains 5 and a bit hours (so long as there are no leaves on the line, there isn't the wrong type of snow, the driver turns up, the signals don't fail, there are no suicudal people, the preceding service was on time and you manage to board the train within one minute of departure time)

They can't use them in the UK as they would have to rip up the entire track and start again.

GRRR

 

[Lammy]

you should only be fined if you do not make an effort to find the condutor to pay for your fare. If you get on and wait for him to come to you then it's a fair cop! However, if you walk through the train to find him and you approach him to pay before he has asked for your ticket then he cannot fine you.

 

[Brixtaan]

Stop winding everyone up trueblue and Beach Hut, the trains are there to be bunked, do you really think prices would go down if there were no bunkers?

"subsidise the scroungers"? ha!
They're out to screw us while at the same time charge as much as they can for profit reasons not investment to provide a better service.Tell me thats not true.

Beach Hut, your right, they are businesses and thats exactly the point.The only reason they are businesses and not a National service is because John Major privatised them to appease the Tory party who thought he wouldn't carry on Thatchers good work.She would never have privatised them.

 

[tedebear]

I'm sory but I don't understand any of the above.............

easy? painless? efficient? honest passengers? run on time

all alien concepts

never heard of any of those concepts... and I pay the princely sum of £3480.60 to get to work each year.... and do I get £3480.60 worth of service - NOT ON YOUR LIFE !!

just a reminder £3480.60 - have you got it!!

if you bunkers are contributing to that - then sod off the lot of ya!!
and stop moaning about your £10 fine!!

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

Japanese trains are timetabled to the nearest 15 SECONDS.

I really do not understand why ours are so shit.

Errrr....... because people keep trying to avoid paying the fare ?

Actually, EVERYBODY subsidises the fare dodgers through their taxes. That is how the government obtain the money to give the TOC's their subsidies. The less revenue obtained from fares, the more subsidy is required to keep the trains going.

If everybody tried to dodge the fare, then we'd have anarchy, and inevitably there would end up being a much worse service. Why ? Because no company would want to try to run a franchise - there would be no incentive for investment, and the Government could not afford to run the service themselves. Hence only the 'profitable' services ( like Gatwick Express for example ) would have a future.

Fare dodging, is like expecting to be able to post a letter without fixing a stamp on it. You may save yourself a few pence but you end up costing everyone else many hundreds of pounds. ( the cost of employing Revenue Protection Officers, Installing Ticket barriers and Permit to Travel machines, extra British Transport Police overtime etc etc...... )

 

[tedebear]

£3480.60

 

[Willow]

£3480.60

PAH!

£3575

Actually, on trains out of Paddington,you are allowed to buy tickets from the conductor as he makes his rounds. You just have to pay the full fare and aren't entitled to any supersaver discounts or the like. Not much use if you use a season ticket though.

 

[fatboy]

Errrr....... because people keep trying to avoid paying the fare ?

I do not agree that fare dodging is the reason why our trains are so bad.

Actually, EVERYBODY subsidises the fare dodgers through their taxes. That is how the government obtain the money to give the TOC's their subsidies. The less revenue obtained from fares, the more subsidy is required to keep the trains going.
[/B]

If the fare dodgers didn't travel the rail companies still wouldn't get their money, and the services would still be as bad.

There is little, if any, investment in the railways. The profits they make do not get reinvested. A lot if it goes to paying directors ridiculously large salaries and bonuses.

you end up costing everyone else many hundreds of pounds. ( the cost of employing Revenue Protection Officers, Installing Ticket barriers and Permit to Travel machines, extra British Transport Police overtime etc etc...... )

Permit to travel machines actually save the rail companies money. The whole point of them is for people to be able to buy a ticket when ticket offices are closed. This means that at small stations like Falmer, the ticket office only needs to be manned at busy times.

Ticket barriers and revenue protection are necessary to protect revenue in the same way that shops employ security guards. Inevitably shoplifting occurs. In the same way that deliberate fare dodging does. I am sure they have carfefully researched it so that the extra revenue gained is greater than the cost of hiring the staff.

One £10 fine every 2 hours would pay for two employees!!


I wonder if Pethick's Haircut has an opinion on all this....