Thanks, all, for your useful comments.
Originally Posted by
Jimmie76
I got on at Moreton in Marsh (MIM) and was going to London as my final destination. No ticket office on a Sunday at Moreton so I boarded the train intending to purchase one from the train manager. He came round...
Throughout the journey I never laid eyes on a train guard or station agent. The guard on the Kingham-Reading train was several coaches away and never came through.
Originally Posted by
Swiss Tony
I also suspect Kingham had a Permit to Travel machine, which you should have fed with as many coins as you had on your person.
It doesn't, sad to say. There is a ticket-seller's window only, inside the station building which is locked up on Sundays.
One could argue that by not having staffed ticket offices or ticket machines at every station, and no guards / conductors on trains (or lazy ones), they are giving their services away.
Well, agreed. The proper response depends not only on the individual honor of the customer, but a certain cultural / ritual knowledge that is not overtly communicated by GWR, but which I have acquired via this thread. The Kingham-Reading guard could certainly have made an instructional announcement about all this for the benefit of the dozens who boarded at closed stations between Moreton and Oxford, for example, but did not.
Are there ticket kiosks on the post-barrier platforms / mezzanines / etc. at Reading?