Great Western Coffee Shop

Is this permitted ?
Common sense would say yes of course it is. Does anyone really believe that senior busineses figures buy there own tickets ? I dont, I think that they have their PAs do it, either on line or by going to a station.

On the other hand on virtually every ticket is printed "not transferable".
This is generally understood to mean that one must not use a season ticket or travelcard that has been issued to someone else. So doing is an offence and a number of persons have been prosecuted.
But what about say a weekly travelcard that is purchased by Ms. Jones and used exclusively by Peter Smith. No less of revenue results, and it does not "seem wrong" yet the ticket has undoubtedly been transfered.

In the case of cheap or local tickets purchased for cash, I doubt that anyone would know. But what about a costly ticket paid for with a card, and the name on the card not matching the name one the card. Not tranferable would reasonably mean that the outward and return portions of a ticket must not be used by different persons, but if the name of the traveller and the name on the card transaction differed, might not an RPI conclude that this indicates fraud.

All covered by the National Rail Conditions of Carriage (http://nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/nrcc/NRCOC.pdf#page=7):


A weekly or longer paper Travelcard would require an accompanying photocard, so that couldn't be transferred. Oyster cards that have a weekly or longer Travelcard on it are also non transferable. They cannot be used by anyone other than the registered owner of the Oyster.

The key is that rail tickets are sold for use by the person for whom they were purchased and cannot then be transferred.

There's no way that Groupsave could work if each member of the group had to buy their own tickets, and the thought of a family of 4 each buying their own tickets and paying separately is absurd.  It would, I suppose, teach 6 and 7 year olds how to handle money ...

Whilst common sense should prevail in this situation, the worst case scenario could be a bye law 22 prosecution.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong).

A Byelaw 22 prosecution should only be considered if the person travelling has not paid, or has not had paid for them, the correct fare.

That's byelaw 18

22 covers what we are talking about here.  Obviously it wouldn't come to that but I was telling the OP what the WORST case scenario could be.

What about Carnets?

I've always wondered why we have this hang up about transferring tickets, the continentals don't seem to bother.

What's wrong with one person using the outward half of a return ticket and someone else the return?

I can understand it for season tickets but ordinary returns.

No. Byelaw 18 refers to ticketless travel. You've selectively quoted me leaving out the important bit about 'correct fare'.

Byelaw 22:


When buying a ticket for someone else, as long as the correct fare is paid, no offence is committed.