The Ticket Collector

Fares ‘revision’ 18th May.

On the 18th May the new revised fares will be coming into effect on the National Network. Some companies have withdrawn some tickets and replaced them with more expensive tickets.

In January 2008 the overall allowable average increase for regulated fares Peak day and Season Tickets was 4.8%, with variations by flow and ticket type up to a maximum 9.8% increase.

Some Train Companies did not use the full yearly increase and therefore will be increasing the tickets to the yearly maximum this time around.

National Express East Coast (NXEC) will be increasing their already expensive tickets some more in May. We have also received reports (from an unnamed travel centre clerk) that they will charge everyone without an advance ticket a seat reservation charge of £1 for each seat reserved. Is this to stop the season ticket holders reserving seats, or is it to pay for for a new seat reservation printer so they can finally put out reservations 07:20 at Peterborough and late night services out of Kings Cross?

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Ticket names to change.

As if you were not already confused by the huge number of different ticket names, the powers that be have decided to change the names yet again.

So say goodbye to the SuperSaver, the Saver, the Cheap Day Return, the Standard Day Return and say hello to Super Off-Peak and Anytime.

The new ticket types are as follows.

SWT drivers to strike.

THIS STRIKE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED PENDING FURTHER TALKS

ASLEF members which work on SWT have voted yes to industrial action in the ballot regarding the 2007 pay review. SWT have offered an insulting offer of 4.5% which is below RPI (currently running at around 5%).

Members will be withdrawing their labour between 00.01 on Monday 31st March 2008 and 23.59 on Thursday 3rd April 2008.

At the present time SWT have stated that a reduced service will operate and that some services will be replaced by buses.

Severe weather warning - Friday 1st and 2nd February.

Severe weather conditions have been forecast by the Met Office for the UK for Friday 1 and Saturday 2 February. The weather warning is valid from 0001 Friday 1st until 0600 Saturday 2nd February.

The Met Office continues to forecast colder weather to spread southwards across the UK during Friday and at first on Saturday giving heavy snow in places. Areas most at risk include Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland from early on Friday, extending to northern and central England and much of Wales on Friday afternoon, and perhaps into southern areas on Friday evening. Northern areas could see accumulations of 10cm of snow, with up to 20cm on higher ground, and blizzard conditions and snow drifts could occur in strong winds. Southern areas could see accumulations of 2 to 5cm of snow by Saturday morning. Disruption to transport and power networks is likely and the public are advised to take extra care. This warning will be updated by 1200 Friday 1st February unless superseded by Flash warnings.

Goodbye Waterloo - Eurostar

The last service departed from London Waterloo International last night. Vistors to Waterloo were treated to a musical spectacle by Blazing Fire, before Lily Allen arrived to wish us farewell to Waterloo International.

From pop to jazz in the terminal concourse, as the Centre for Young Musicians followed up with a variety of talented youths performing jazz songs to entertain the passengers checking in for the final two trains to Paris and Brussels. As the rope was placed across check-in to close, a lone trumpter played a solo elegy for the station.

The press (evening standard/metro/london lite) have already started to jump on the bandwagon as to what will happen to the old Eurostar platform.

The old international platforms will be mothballed at a cost of £500,000 a year however just £5m is needed to be spent to bring them into use for commuter and other services run by train operators such as South West Trains.

No ticket? False details given?

If you travel on the Railway without the correct ticket and dont have a vaild reason or excuse, several things could now happen to you.

If you are stopped at your final destination you could be Penalty Fared twice the single fare or £20 whichever the greater, for your complete journey.

It is an offence to provide false details, or to refuse to provide details. The maximum penalty after conviction is up to 51 weeks prison. Regulation of Railways Act 1889 as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003

You have the right of appeal on all Penalty Fare notices, You can do this by writing to the address on the Penalty Fare notice within 21 days and stating your reasons for appeal.

You could be recommended for prosecution, a statement may be taken by the Inspector and you will be contacted by the Fraud department of the Railway Company. Maximum fine is £1,000 plus costs. Regulation of Railways Act 1889. However if you swear or are abusive to the Inspector this could increase your fine. Public Order Act

Again it is an offence to provide false details, or to refuse to provide details. The maximum penalty after conviction is up to 51 weeks prison. Regulation of Railways Act 1889 as amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003.

It is your responsiblity to purchase a ticket for the whole of your journey before you get on the train. If there is a long queue at the ticket office/ticket machine, this does not allow you to get on the train without a ticket, it is still your responsibility to allow yourself sufficient time to buy a ticket before travelling.

At stations where there is only one self-service ticket machine there is a further automatic machine called a Permit to Travel machine. This is normally located near the station entrance / exit or beside other self-service machines. You should insert the maximum number of coins you have with you into the Permit to Travel machine, up to the value of your journey. Press the button and you will be issued with a Permit to Travel. Failure to insert the maximum number of coins may lead to you being issued with a Penalty Fare or recommended for prosecution for Permit Abuse.

If their is a genuine reason for you traveling without a ticket (such as ticket machine broken or ticket office closed) then you may not be recommended for prosecution or charged a Penalty Fare, but if there is another method of payment available then you may be issued with a Penalty Fare or recommended for prosecution.

The above information is intended as a guide only and should not be regarded as a complete or authoritative statement of the law or regulations. TheTicketCollector.co.uk cannot give advice on any Penalty Fares issued and cannot help in any Penalty Fare Appeals.

Latest Vistor Information

This is the Latest Visitor Information as to who is visiting this site.

Hopefully this should be a weekly feature, just so we can say “we know who your are” and “we know what your searching for”.

The top 2 search queries to get to this site are:
paul yarwood
family railcard

emap the publishing company visit not that often. The IP tracks down to an area in Peterborough.
Vodafone have been visiting Recently. This maybe be bored employees, or someone accessing the site on a mobile.
HSBC, Barclays, and a few Merchant banks such as UBS have been visiting.

South West Trains loves this site and always comes back every day, somtimes at early hours in the morning.
Notwork Rail also visit on a daily baisis, prehaps they come to the site to find out what the staff that they employe on the tracks are actually doing. They have also been searching for “paul yarwood”.

The BBC visit regually also, but seeing as the BBC have a huge IP range it is impossible to track down which area of the BBC is visiting.
We also know that one person likes viewing the site using Google Reader. Is this a way around the corporate firewall? interesting, still shows the corporate IP range.

There are a lot of people visiting using home ISP’s which is great.