A friend went to Goodmayes station on Friday morning and asked for a single
to Southall, for which he was charged £5.10. He set off via Liverpool Street
and Paddington but when he got to Southall he was told his ticket was
invalid and he would have to pay again - £3.10.

He explained that he had asked for a ticket to Southall and pointed out that
the ticket included zone 4 (both Goodmayes and Southall being in zone 4.)
No, he was told, it was only valid on the underground and he would have to
pay again - £3.10 please! In that case, he asked, could he just pay from
Ealing Broadway and was told that, as he had already admitted travelling
from Paddington, the suggestion could trigger a £20 penalty charge! £20 or
£3.10 - take your pick, he was told!

He elected for the £3.10 option and, to add insult to injury, a comment from
another passenger as he left the station made it clear that, in that
person's eyes at least, he had been caught for fraudulently evading his
fare!

He is understandably livid and, when he told me about it, was going to take
it up with 'one', who issued the ticket. However, I am not sure that this
is the right way to go. His ticket is a Standard Day Single to U1234, valid
by any available route and, on checking the NR website for details of the
new zonal fare structure, I note that £5.10 is the correct fare for his
journey, including the underground.

I am assuming that the U in U1234 means that the ticket is also valid on the
underground (to differentiate it from the £3.10 ticket which isn't) but,
presumably, at Southall it is taken to mean that it is ONLY valid on the
underground!

Unless there is a way that he could have been sold the wrong ticket for the
correct fare at Goodmayes, I feel he has been the victim of First Great
Western incompetence and that it is to FGW that he should complain. Is my
assumption correct?

Terry