Why do rail firms treat passengers as guilty until proven innocent?

Peter Brooks writes

I booked a return rail ticket from London Euston to Birkdale online with Virgin Trains. As Virgin only provides e-tickets for mainline journeys, I had to go to my local railway station and pick up four tickets for the journey. 

On the return journey, I presented my ticket to staff at Birkdale to board the Merseyrail train to Liverpool Central, where I think I left the ticket in the exit machine. In any event, when I arrived at Liverpool Lime Street to board the London train, I no longer had it. 

But I did have my seat reservation ticket, a printout of the original booking confirmation and the credit card used to purchase the ticket. 

I noticed that the train manager was aggressive in his approach to ticket inspection with other passengers. He had already made a detailed announcement over the PA system saying that anyone without the correct ticket should get off at Crewe and get on the right train or buy a new ticket.

I showed the train manager my seat reservation ticket and proof of purchase, but he was very dismissive. I was asked to pay the fare of £159. I said calmly that I had already paid for it and had no intention of paying again. He then told me that I would be treated as a fare dodger and stomped off. 

At Euston I was met by three Virgin security guards and not allowed to leave the station without signing an unpaid fare notice. 

I have lost an appeal against the charge. Virgin Trains says that its terms say that the actual paper ticket must be shown. But the Unpaid Fare Notice says it’s issued if the passenger “could not produce a valid ticket or authority to travel when requested”. 

But I could produce authority to travel – the purchase receipt.

Why is this outdated ticket issuing system being used to penalise genuine customers who have genuinely mislaid a ticket and can prove this?

Gill Charlton replies

Before taking this up with Virgin Trains, I asked for an opinion from Transport Focus, the independent watchdog for rail users. “It is right that train companies should take steps to stop those who try to evade paying fares,” says its passenger director, David Sidebottom. “But those who have made an innocent mistake and been caught out by the many rules and restrictions should be treated with understanding and not immediately assumed to be guilty.”

I put this to Virgin Trains but it wouldn’t budge on its decision. “Proof of purchase such as an email receipt isn’t enough since the actual ticket may be sold on or refunded,” says a spokesman for Virgin Rail. The company claims it can be hard to spot fare dodgers and says it must treat everyone without the correct ticket in a similar way. 

I travel regularly on GWR and find train managers vary in their approach to mislaid tickets. Some give the passenger the benefit of the doubt, others will insist on charging for a new ticket. Mobile ticketing – m-tickets that are held on a smartphone – is slowly being rolled out across Britain. According to National Rail’s website (nationalrail.co.uk), 230 stations accept m-tickets but not all rail operating companies using a station may sell m-tickets.