Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson
That was totally legal, booking office unstaffed
Rule has a special condition for this where the member of staff who issues tickets needs to assist in the trains departure (s)he can authorise you to board with no ticket as to not delay the trains departure. Again you don't need to know this. In fact applying nothing more than common sense will see you safely through the system
If you can buy a ticket before you board you must, if you can't you must obtain a ticket at the earliest opertunity
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Mark. I don't think this is quite that clear. The gentleman in question didn't have permission from a member of staff to board.
He walked onto the platform, walked into the ticket office, could see no one at the counter and so walked back onto the platform. The doors then started beeping.
At this stage he didn't know
a: if there was someone in the ticket office, but not at the window for the five seconds he was at it.
b: if he could legally board the train
c: if he could pay on the train
By the time we reached Mullingar, I had already decided that if we reached Connolly without a ticket checker, I would hold back at the ticket desk to make sure he didn't get fined. The gentleman looked very anxious when he boarded the train and very relieved when the ticket checker sold him a ticket.
I find it very worrying the Irish Rail stick no ticket no travel posters the length and breadth of the network, only for people to find out that they don't really mean it at certain stations under certain circumstances and at certain times of the day.