A lack of training for Ticket Inspectors?

I am becoming increasingly alarmed when hearing of problems readers have had on journeys with perfectly legitimate tickets which on-train staff have refused to accept - seemingly because they do not know their job.

In a recent example, a reader caught the 1115 Paddington-Cardiff (first stop Reading) for a journey to Didcot Parkway, armed with an All-Zones Off-Peak Day Travelcard and a pre-purchased OP Day Return from Boundary Zone 6 to Didcot.

The National Conditions, having explained the normal split ticketing rule whereby the train has to call, adds paragraph 14.2: “If you are using a … daily Zonal Ticket … in conjunction with another Ticket … then the train does not need to call at that station for your combination to be valid.”

Our reader was confronted by an “uncompromising Ticket Inspector” who insisted this was invalid and made him buy a new ticket from Paddington to Reading, and who also made him leave the train at Reading.

He complained to Great Western Railway, which merely confirmed the Inspector was wrong and refunded the money. The company did not address the humiliation or inconvenience suffered, and I feel he should have been compensated.

Surely, however, any Inspector or guard who is that ignorant of even basic National Conditions should have been dismissed. Why is today’s training so inadequate?