On 27 Oct, 21:06, (Neil Williams)
wrote:
On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:56:21 -0000, "Buddenbrooks"

wrote:
*The point I was trying to make is that in the UK it is not possible to
commit a criminal act inadvertently.

Er, yes it is, at least in some cases.

Exceeding the speed limit when driving a car is a criminal offence.
This may have occurred because you were negligent in watching the
speedometer rather than because you deliberately chose to ignore the
limit, but is still an offence regardless of how it came about.

The answer to someone getting excessed a whackload of money for
getting on a wrongly timed train, though, is to some extent (certainly
at the London termini) individual ticket checks before boarding. *This
is practiced at Euston, and passengers are turned away (or sold a new
ticket or excess on the spot if desired) if they hold the wrong ticket
for the train for which the grip is being carried out. *I suspect the
arrangement at Euston is this way because it isn't practical to
barrier the whole station because of its layout and size[1], but it
does have a passenger-friendly side effect.


I can't let that one go unremarked. It ain't passenger-friendly when
Virgin staff at Euston are ignorant thugs who turn away people with
valid tickets and force them to buy extra tickets, backed up by
management who tell blatant lies and refuse to accept the NRCoC.

I strongly suspect that this is effectively a systematic fraud,
because the staff concerned evidently understand nothing about ticket
validity and people in a hurry can't argue.

Vengeance is coming.