Originally Posted by
ScienceTeacher
One must possibly caution how often crew come across this, and, what they can realistically do in such a scenario. Was this their tenth time today?
They can't exactly whack out a card machine - like GWR last week when I bought the wrong seat frog upgrade for the service one minute later! - nor can they force the person back.
They had a bit of fun about it, and made the customer go back without directly telling him by just pointing out the service in Y - which - shows their first intentions.
I have the full support and put a suitably vague Golden Ticket in for the IFL.
As you mentioned GWR I had a similar thing to this happen on a train. This occured ages ago on a FGW train which you can tell because it involves a buffet there aren't (m)any of them any more and the old name. I've never been a FGW employee but I was present & I got the rest of the story after talking to the Train Manager whilst at the buffet.
There is a yob - for want of a better word - sitting in a shell suit in the 1st quite carriage of an HST shouting into his mobile phone (think Dom Jolly & Trigger Happy). This is early evening, and there are a few people (including me) in this carriage besides him, and one of them obviously very pissed off, goes off towards the buffet. The TM arrives shortly afterwards and asks to see Yobbys ticket, Yobby tells his caller he'll be 30 seconds, puts down phone says he will have to find it, "It's in my bag somewhere, come back in five minutes yeah". TM says that he needs to see the ticket now or he'll have to charge him the full price for a 1st Single for the entire length of his journey.
Yobby yells into phone that he'll call back, pulls large bag out of luggage rack and starts searching for the elusive ticket. Whilst unpacking the phone starts to ring, he stops to answer this, again yelling into the phone, but was quick (thankfully). TM at this point asks if Yobby actually has a ticket at all.
He rather tersely says that he does & a few minutes later he produces a 1st ticket and sits down again already on his phone again now repacking his bag. TM coughs and Yobby enquires as to the problem now (using language starting with the 6th letter of the alphabet), whereupon he is asked if he has the Senior Railcard that the ticket was bought with.
Yobby looks horrified and tells his caller he'll have to call him/her back TM says to get the bag and follow him, Yobby
is not seen or heard from again.
When I went to the buffet to get a drink and some food, the TM was standing there so I enquired as to what had happened to Yobby. TM said he had threatened him with the Transport Police meeting the train at Oxford, if he didn't cough up the full fare for 1st, and explain where he got the ticket from (might have nicked it, so fair question). Turns out after his grandfathers funeral, he was round at the house saw the ticket and borrowed it Yobby was now seriously out of pocket because of the upwards of £60 ($120) he had been made to fork out for his unticketed travel.
He had then decided to leave the train at Oxford, despite having just paid for a 1st single to Hereford, as he now couldn't afford the return journey by train.