Contesting €100 fine - do I have a case?

[eoinc]

Yesterday I took the 07:52 Commuter train from Malahide to Connolly. When I arrived at the station, there was a queue at the ticket office, and both TVMs were in use. However, during peak hours there is also an IE employee selling tickets at the gate. I approached him, reaching into my back pocket for money.

The man at the gate gestured with his head towards the train (which was on the platform, about to depart) and said to me "you're alright - go on through". I was a little surprised by this, but went ahead and boarded the train, relieved not to have missed it.

My destination was Booterstown, so I would be changing to a DART at Connolly. When I arrived there, I went to the ticket office at the end of platform 4, intending to pay for the journey I had just taken, then to go outside to the TVM and buy a second ticket for the remainder of my journey.

You seasoned veterans of the Rail Users boards will be able to predict exactly what happened next. The guy in the ticket office phoned Malahide station, who denied that they had allowed anyone without a ticket to board the train, and then he issued me with a €100 fine.

So I immediately phoned Malahide station and spoke to the man who had been at the gate. He explained that when I approached and reached for my pocket, he thought I was going to produce an annual pass or something similar. So he let me straight through, in case I took too long rummaging through my pockets and caused a delay. He says that he tells people to "go on through if you have a valid ticket", but I told him I definitely didn't hear him say that second part. He admitted that, when there is a train about to depart and a crowd of people trying to get onto it, he uses the abbreviated form of his instruction.

I asked him if he could see how his choice of words was ambiguous and potentially misleading. He supposed so, but added that it didn't matter. After all, I DID board the train without a ticket, despite having the opportunity to buy one, did I not? And that's all that matters.

No doubt IE have the letter of the law on their side, but this seems very unjust to me. At no point did I try to evade paying the fare. I'm not one of those people who arrive late and think that their lateness entitles them to skip the queue. I went to buy a ticket and was told (or so it seemed to me) to go through. And if saving a couple of quid on a train ticket had been my intention, I could have just waited on the platform at Connolly, boarded the next DART, and walked out scot-free at Booterstown where there are no ticket checking facilities. Instead, I try to be honest, to pay for my journey, and get stung.

I've appealed the fine, but I'm not hopeful. Do you think I have a case?

[Mark Gleeson]

The law favours you as under the bye laws if a member of staff permits you to board without a ticket in the interests of not delaying the train you have not committed an offence

Where the Board gives notice that a station is unattended or the booking office is closed, or where any person is instructed by an authorised person to board a train at a station without purchasing a ticket at the booking office so as not to delay the departure of the train from the station, any person not in possession of a valid ticket entitling him or her to travel may enter a vehicle at that station for the purpose of travelling but that person must obtain a ticket or other authority from an authorised person on the train as soon as practicable after entering any vehicle or from an authorised person on arrival at the station to which such person is travelling by the train.

[Thomas Ralph]

That and the fact that the fixed penalty notice is issued for a violation of section 132 of the Railway Safety Act (http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2005/en/act/pub/0031/sec0132.html), which doesn't appear to have taken place, as the offence would require intent to avoid payment of the fare.