My humble apologies to you Sir. I should have looked at your post of Dec 6th 2008 first.

"Another violation of forum etiquette is posting in ALL CAPS. This is considered shouting and is very rude, in addition to being hard on the eyes. Something may be in caps for emphasis (e.g. I did NOT want to go!), but no post should be entirely in all caps."

^ An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.^   F Scott Fitzgerald:

 

No more...............(on this subject)

Chris,

I did consider the tone of my post, very seriously, before I posted it. I did not consider this suggestion to be "helpful".

I can only assume by his "nom de plume" that the poster who accused me of "sounding off" is (or was) a railway employee. I am afraid, to me, accusing me of "sounding off" is more of an "offence" against site rules than my saying that something is a "cop out" !
I am also accused of "shouting" which is most certainly not the case - could it be that I am criticising the Railway Companies just a little too much ? Can we have a little bit of balance here please ?

To go back to the start of this thread - It would now appear that it is quite acceptable for TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) employees to refuse access to part of a station to a pair of 60 year olds on the grounds that they are potential "fare dodgers" - YET - the same TOC seems to be unwilling to act when blatant fare dodging adversely affects one of these persons who has paid the full fare.
Yet again, I have to say (perhaps in slightly more diplomatic terms) that I find anyone who supports this attitude to be defending the indefensible.

I am not expecting that this site does anything about SWT^▸ (South West Trains)'s (or FGW^▸ (First Great Western)'s policies), not that I asked it to; however, I do not expect that a totally justified comment on this subject to be met with accusation of "sounding off" and of "shouting" by other site members. I would therefore respectfully ask that others also "reconsider the tone" of their posts .

Finally:

In effect, so is SWT's blatant disregard of the rules laid down by DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) when SWT signed up to its franchise.

Can't find the three letter code for that one! 

I HAVE written to SWT to complain (not about this incident) and the responses I have had, have been - to be blunt, absolutely disgraceful ! What I classify as "bed bug" letters (qv).
I complained about their staff - this wasn't even mentioned in their first reply.
I have detailed specific questions that I want answered - completely ignored  - No,  I lie ! they say they have answered them - by ignoring them !!!!
I am about to fire off my fourth letter about the same incident - this time to the MD of SWT. I have contacted my MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context) as well, I am not prepared to let this one lie !


I'm sorry,  but this reply is complete cop out ! To accuse me of "sounding off", I classify as the same pathetic, meaningless responses I have been getting from SWT when I complain ! If you can't stand the heat in the kitchen.....................

 If a TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) means what it says about fare abuse it should enforce it. Your argument is the same as the motorist is now suffering from - don't pick on those with no tax, no insurance, no MOT, that is too difficult ! - lets "do" the honest motorist who will pay up for doing 35mph in a 30 zone !

Hmm ! perhaps I am TOO honest - I always buy a ticket and can honestly say that I have NEVER tried for a "free" ride. That is why I took such exception to myself and my wife bring treated as "guilty" by an organisation that appears to expect the traveling public to obey their arbitrary rules when they themselves are totally flouting the rules that are imposed on them to cover this very scenario.


Hmm - again ! I suppose that depends on your definition of "staff". As I have commented several times before I find on-train ticket inspection generally to be lax and the use, or should that be non-use ?, of ticket gates to be almost laughable ! Who is responsible for this - Staff ? or, Management ?
If you had a human being checking tickets, at platform entry/exit, it might act as some sort of deterrent - to spend huge sums of (MY - as a taxpayer !) money on installing barriers and leaving them open and unmanned - at the same time saying that these barriers are vital to reduce fare dodging is real Alice-in-Wonderland thinking !

JohnR's story of the "lady" in First Class is apposite. My wife was returning from Waterloo on Saturday, she had (paid for !) a First Class ticket. As soon as the guard had gone through, First Class was invaded by a bunch of well oiled football supporters since Standard was "rammed" (to use their very loud words !). The guard was not seen again !!!!

I was at Bath Spa on Monday morning, waiting for son to arrive from Chippenham. I won't go into the total lack of info regarding the signalling problems ..............!!

Whilst I was waiting for about 45 mins, from about 0930 to 1015, I had a little prowl round. Bath is a PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) station, according to FGW^▸ (First Great Western): there is ONE PF notice on the whole station; in the subway, where it may or may not be noticed by passengers heading for the Bristol bound platform.
The gates were locked open, initially there were two staff in attendance - totally ignoring the people going in and out, but they obviously got bored and soon vanished. My son informs me that the barriers were still open when I dropped him off at Bath at about 1330.

Another TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) that seems to totally ignore the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) rules on this !

The question has to be asked - are they really serious about fare dodgers ? they seem to be doing all they can to encourage it !

My wife and a group of her work mates went from Warminster & Westbury to Bath a couple of weeks back. I researched GroupSave for them and found the website very confusing.
In the end one of them went to Westbury station, got the tickets there after being told that they could use their tickets from the 1601 ex Warminster (the one they asked for) onwards and return on any train - which didn't seem to tally with what the Website was saying. The tickets appeared to be normal OPDRs.

To get really off topic .............

The "Western" end of the Panama Canal is the one that ships heading West enter the canal by..... and vice versa !     

My daughter lives in Rochester and has a choice of three routes into London. HS1^▸ (High Speed line 1 - St Pancras to Channel Tunnel) to St P, or conventional to Victoria or Charing X/Waterloo East.
She goes up to London fairly frequently, luckily her employer pays the fare ! Most people who commute into town just cannot afford the premium if they are paying out of their own pocket.

She rates the St P service as good
Victoria as fair
Charing X as awful

She, and many others, are asking why they have to pay a premium for a good service, surely they should get a discount for using the other routes ?
Although the HS1 is faster into "London" she has found that most of her visits are reached more quickly by using the slower service into town, with less tube/bus after the train. 

Another one, with the lens at "full stretch"  (500mm) - if you rt click on the photo, then "image properties" all will be revealed !

Almost all anyway - the photo I have posted is greatly reduced in size and quality to be a sensible size on the forum. As shown it is 85kB, the original copy on my PC is 10.5 mB

..............and a Sigma 150 - 500mm (couldn't afford the Nikkor !!!!)

Leaving Westbury this afternoon - luckily, between the heavy showers !

I beat you to it 

UPDATE:
I have just had my 3rd reply from SWT^▸ (South West Trains) - as obtuse as the previous two !

According to SWT,  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) does have a Penalty Fares system in operation from Salisbury. They quote the nationalrail site, which does indeed say this - but this is the site that says Warminster has a Lost Property Office open until 10 o'clock seven days a week !
(During my last visit I did a little "snooping" - the Penalty Fares area at Salisbury does NOT comply with the rules of the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) at all - only two notices on the whole station, both of which are in positions where they are highly likely NOT to be seen by most people)

I don't really know if this person is being deliberately obstructive or what, in his replies .........

He says "We would allow access if there is a good reason...... I have given the example of elderly or disabled......... this is related to the customer travelling......not the person meeting the customer" !!!!!!   
I had already pointed out that, in this case, the person would HAVE a ticket anyway .........

Choice now:-
Boss man of SWT
MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post - a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London, depending on context)
DfT
Passenger Focus
Salisbury Journal
.................or all of them !