"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:00:28 +0000, pedan3 wrote:

I said that was out of all proportion to the original fare which I had
bought in good faitrh. The ticket clerk at St Pancras had known I was
over 60, since I had discussed the renewal of my serior railcard with
her.

It seems, unfortunately, that they were right that it was not valid:-

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_...n/freedom.html

This is a hang-over from the days when nothing to do with NSE was
valid on any IC TOC (ISTR this even included Network Cards?). Much of
this has been relaxed now, but not all of it.

However, whenever I have bought Boundary Zone tickets, the booking
clerk has always asked me to show them the ticket I'm extending,
presumably to check validity - did they not do this in this instance?

This doesn't excuse the heavy-handedness, however, which appears every
time it comes up to be applied to inappropriate (easy?) targets and
not to those who deliberately avoid their fare.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

Now this has happened, I have had a closer look at the little leaflet
provided with my Freedom Pass, and it does indeed exclude some TOCS,
including on my copy First Great Western, so clearly the list can change, so
if you do not have the Internet, you are absolutely at the mercy of the
ticket office! I have a feeling when I applied for a boundary zone extension
on the East Midlands from SE London the clerk just issued a ticket without
comment. I was surprised at how little the ticket price differed from my
wife's but, as we were going to Sheffield, it was never going to be very
much, so I didn't go back and query it. Although the TO clerk certainly
didn't point out the regulation, happily she did apply them correctly.

The PR angle of this incident is appalling and, it is quite correct that the
"freedom pass remains the property of Transport for London and is not
transferable. It may only be used by the holder whose name appears on the
front and may not be used by anyone". It does also say that the "freedom
pass is not valid if illegible, damaged or altered. Ticket checking staff
may withdraw any pass which appears to be invalid." but I think "Clive"
would be hard put to justify his actions on these grounds.

MaxB