The RDG delivers solution to unusual routeing problem
RECENTLY I came across a rather amusing consequence of the Routeing Guide.
A reader wanted to buy a single from Denton to Ribblehead. Of course, his journey had to be limited to the one train a week from Denton - the 0932 Fridays-only service to Stalybridge.
However, the journey is a straightforward one, with an 11-minute wait at Stalybridge for a Leeds train, followed by 13 minutes at Leeds for a Carlisle service. Arrival at Ribblehead is 1202.
Our reader did the right thing and looked up fares on the Avantix download before going to the internet. He found that a railcard single was £19.10, marked ‘any permitted route’.
When he tried to buy it online the above they admitted the single was correct, but that they could find no services that matched this fare.
Perplexed, he asked me to look into it. I did what I would have thought Customer Services should have done, and looked up the Routeing Guide - although I sympathise that they might not have known how to use it, because it is so ridiculously complicated.
To my amazement, I found that the only permitted route was via Bolton, Clitheroe and Hellifield. Via Leeds was barred. Yes, really - Denton only has trains on a Friday and Clitheroe to Hellifield is only open Sundays, therefore the single can never be used! And before someone cynically suggests two nights might well have caused some amusement, but to their credit they replied within 24 hours.
It seems that for some reason the availability via Leeds was withdrawn in late 2013, prior to the RDG taking over responsibility for the Guide. Nobody has complained - but then that’s not too surprising either.
Frankly, if anyone bought one from the guard and used it via Leeds it’s almost 100% certain that it would never have been queried, because it’s the obvious route. However, it does mean that because journey planners work by speed they show the route, but couldn’t show the fare. So perhaps people have bought two tickets, never realising there was a single.
The RDG went on to point out that there is
was changed online that day and the £19.10 fare does now show on journey planners for the journey via Leeds.
Much more serious is a series of reports regarding passengers who use cash and have no credit or debit cards. As a result, they find themselves unable to buy tickets at many stations where the ticket machines do not accept cash.
It seems that some passengers who have boarded trains having been unable to buy a ticket, followed by no guard coming round, have ended up in court paying large sums after attempting to pay at the destination.
I am totally at a loss to know exactly why, because the incidents reported in the press Transport to work with the industry to legislate a change to a conflicting and outdated set of laws applying to travel without a ticket.
Even in a Penalty Fares area it is almost certainly not enforceable if someone had cash for a ticket but a card-only machine was the only means of purchase. Anyone charged a penalty would have it reversed on appeal.
I gather the recent court cases were because passengers failed to respond in the legal process, which led to large default fines (in one case over £600 for a failure to purchase a £5 ticket).
At issue is that if people pay a required settlement or allow it to reach court without defending it, they have in effect chosen not to