Great Western Coffee Shop

Obviously I can't vouch for the veracity of this story, but if true there's at least one FGW RPI or conductor out there who's due a little re-training. It still amazes me that there appears to be the odd member of staff out there, despite the training they receive, who thinks they can PF a passenger for using an advance ticket on a later train as a result of a missed connection.

http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-for-exemplary-customer-service.html (http://railwayeye.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-for-exemplary-customer-service.html)

This has appeared on Railway Eye to-day

This from the Pirate of Penzance...

It's been all action on the 12:06 Paddington to Penzance today ...

A gentleman got on at Reading and after having his ticket checked was told that it was not valid.

The man explained to the customer service executive that his connection was late getting into Reading. The CSA then advised him that he'd be getting a fine, and asked for his details and a signature. The man gave his address but refused to sign. A small polite argument followed where a few people nearby got involved, one calling the CSA a jobsworth.

When the train arrived at Exeter, an officer of the BTP came on board carrying instructions to arrest three abusive passengers. When the officer was appraised by other passengers around of the situation, he told the CSA to leave or be reported for wasting police time. The passenger was allowed to continue.

Incidentally, the ticket he was travelling on had been issued free to him by FGW as compensation for a previous two hour delay.

Is there any chance that 'being reasonable' could be included as a module in First Great Western's training programme? 

I wonder whether there might be something in the "being reasonable" comment.  Are Ticket Examiners pushed too hard to adopt a zero tolerance approach to apparently invlaid tickets, whatever the reason?

Hmm.  I'd like to see a few more facts on this incident, before passing comment.  :-X

Lots of issues here. What exactly is a CSA or Customer Service Executive? As always, there are two sides to every story. A Train Manager cannot issue a 'fine' but can issue a Full Anytime Single in respect of an invalid ticket. If it was an RPI then he/she can issue a Penalty Fare of ^20 or twice the single fare to the next station (whichever is the greater) plus an additional fare if the passenger wishes to continue their journey.

Obviously we'd need to know exactly what journey was being undertaken. Was it a combination of tickets? (A grey area when it comes to using splits where one is an Advance) or was it a through Advance where one portion of the journey was delayed?

And how exactly can BTP ask a member of staff to leave a train? That would mean having the service caped. The staff member was given the choice to leave the train or be reported for wasting police time. ???

Too many imponderables, so like CfN said, I'd like more details before passing judgement on who was right or wrong.

if the passenger had indeed been delayed by a missed connection, an authority to travel would be issued on verification of the delay and if the ticket as stated was issued free by FGW surely it would have been the scratch card type anyway

Not if it was revenue protection, which the initial report would suggest it was.

Re the free ticket, I would guess that this means the ticket was paid for with travel vouchers from a delay compensation, rather than the "scratch card" freebies that can also be issued.

Good point dogbox. If the passenger had been given a free ticket, it's highly unlikely it would've been a restrictive Advance Purchase ticket. Of course it could've been vouchers that were issued which the passenger used to purchase an AP....

They say 2 hours late, so presumably he was issued with a RTV through Delay Repay.

Would the passenger have to do this before before the later train or could this be done on the train?  I'm quite interested as I'd just hop on the next service knowing/assuming that the RPI/conductor/"customer service executive" can verify my previous train was delayed.

Would an RPI really travel from Reading to Exeter where there are no intermediate stops? Doesn't take 90 minutes to grip a train!

You're right blakey, but the original story does rather confuse the matter by referring to CSA and/or Customer Service Executive. Those are new ones on me.....

Also RPIs on the Berks and Hants (or Toot and Bunny - but why so called - God knows!) would be a first!

RPIs do operate on the stoppers from Reading to Westbury.and if they were concerned an authority to travel should be obtained before boarding the Train. as The Conductor/TM cant know every single delayed service, quite obviously if something major had gone wrong they would be aware of this and if it  involved a lot of passengers

Occasionally they seem to get bored and spread their wings - before there were any "west" RPIs a couple of years ago I got checked by a Thames Valley one between Chippenham and Bath on a Saturday morning.

Be interesting to know his full journey and what train he was originally booked for.

I'm guessing he was booked on the 11:33 - and the only late train that may have connected with the 11:33 and was late - was the 11:08 XC from Newcastle which got in at 11:30.

I reckon there is more to it - but we are unlikely to get the full story.

Perhaps he had more than one delay?

Hence why I say it would be better to know the full story - but of course people prefer to automatically pass judgement and blame the railway.

a PF cannot be issued in this instance anyway as the train runs fast rdg-exd so leaves one PF area into another, sounds like (purely speculating) that the TM was issuing a UFN as the customer refused to pay.