More Train Hassles
So yeah, I got fined £10 today for the sake of a £1.50 extension. I am not a happy bunny.
Dear Sir/Madam,
On the 28/05/04 I returned from University in Ealing to Dartford station. Upon arriving at the station I went to the Revenue Protection Officer and I told him that I needed to pay the extra from Crayford as my ticket, a one day travelcard bought from Swanley, was only valid to Zone 6.
He told me I couldn’t pay the extra and I would have to pay a £10 penalty fine. I explained that in the past the RPO’s had been fine about me paying the extra. In fact one of them made a joke of it and said it was £20 just to see my face before telling me the real price. He said that I should have been told that I was travelling without a valid ticket and would face a £10 fine, which I hadn’t been.
On the 13/02/04 on my journey home the train stopped at Charlton and we were informed that the train would not be moving for at least 2 hours but probably more as a bridge had collapsed on the track ahead. I was left in Charlton with no way of getting home, no buses or coaches were put on and we were given no help to continue our journeys. This is the most serious of the problems I have encountered with your service and doesn’t even start to cover the amounts of cancellations, delays, station closures, engineering works and trains being diverted while en route.
Considering the amount of times your service have let me down I am outraged that as a paying customer I am getting conflicting messages concerning the rules. I doubt that my fine will be refunded, although I think it should be, but my point is that there should be one rule for everyone. While I was being fined two ladies came down the stairs carrying bags of plants from Chelsea and asked if someone could open the gate for them. One of the other RPO’s opened the gate and let them through, at no point did either of these ladies produce a ticket nor were they asked for one. I pointed this out to the RPO that was fining me and he said that as he was dealing with me and it was up to his colleagues to keep an eye on the other customers.
I don’t think that it is too much to ask that all customers are treated the same, in fact I’m fairly sure that legally you have to do this. I’m not suggesting that the ladies in question didn’t have tickets but the point is they should have had to show them otherwise no one should.
This letter has also been published on my personal website and with your agreement the reply will also be published there.
I look forward to your reply,
Ian Wright.”
May 31st, 2004 at 10:11 am
With my basic law knowledge I am sure that if you offer to make a payment before they have asked you for payment you cannot be fined. They opperate under the principle that if you haven’t paid correctly then you are commiting theft, however, for the rules of theft to apply they have to prove two things (1) that you had the mens rea - the intention and motivation to do the action and that you had in a way planned the exicution of the crime and (2) actus reas - whereby you committed the action in accordance with the mens rea. You appear to have gone to them with an offer of payment and a declaration of the error thereby cancelling the first point which is the mens rea. If you had stood your ground refused to pay the fine but physically managed to give the RPO the extra money owing then you would have completed the contract of terms and he would have had to let to go, faliure to do so would have constituted an unlawful arrest because you had the ability and the will to pay. There are probably points of my argument that they can fine a loop hole in but if it had of been me I would have waited till they called the Police because I’m always up for a verbal fight!
May 31st, 2004 at 10:41 am
I agree with you completely but their argument is that they have signs before you enter platforms that say it is an offence to board a train without the correct ticket. It isn’t really the fine I’m bothered about but the way he treated me made me feel like a criminal whereas in the same situation before on several occasions his colleagues had just taken the payment. It’s not like they don’t get enough out of me already!!!