Edit 2 add: To the OP: It's total bull**** isn't it, no one actually loses anything by you travelling on the train that once without a ticket, but because they are a business motivated solely by profits and you were breaking their company policy they will now fine you a ridiculously excessive amount. Essentially they punish you for being poor by making you poorer, noone said the system was genius (or even works) but by golly we do believe in it. Good luck!

Hi again guys, well I wrote to the Southern Fares prosecution department just to reaffirm my name and the correct spelling as I assume they will require this if they intend to try me in court, I find it laughable to be honest this is considered an infraction of the law, travelling the train without a ticket haha , I checked out the station a few days ago still no ticket machine, since you can't buy a ticket from the station I got on at, I am sure had I money enough for a ticket the revenue collector would have had no qualms about selling me one since I got on where there is no ticket machine, unfortunately I didn't have enough for my full fare, meh.. sure fire way of ensuring I will never offend again is to take me to claims processing court and fine me, they can take it out of my benefits, or maybe they will accept payment in furniture without getting the bailiffs involved, i need rid of some tables, cupboards etc.. timbo58 you are so right your stern rebuke has reduced me to a quivering wreck, I don't know what you did but somehow I think your rant has induced flashbacks of being smacked on my bottom and called a very naughty boy by some authoritarian school master, haha, I can just imagine the look of disgust on your face as you write it, it is hopefully the same look of disgust I will receive from the spectacle of pompous assery which awaits me in court, I hope they throw the book at me, criminal record, jail time, sent to the plantations, oh wait that hasn't been implemented yet, still maybe by the time I hear from them? I have a real life to carry on living in the meantime far beyond the petty insignificance this whole charade, I bid you all good health, peace and abundance!

BY the way i would have liked to edit that post but the scripts on the page are blocking the edit function?

SRP0 I had stayed in Amberley a couple days as far as i'm aware you can't get an open ended return ticket or i would use that option as I often go there for at least two days. OldCodja Thank you ever so much for you long and well written response, I am eternally grateful as you are helping me no end in acclimatising me to some of the viewpoints and challenges that may be put before me in the coming weeks. Though we perhaps share some different viewpoints on use of the Railways, and perhaps life in general (wriggler), i still feel entitled to my views as a long time and frequent user of the service, i think my views are infact more worthy as they take personal circumstance into account, something every ticket officer in my experience is trained to do. To me it boils down to this: Southern Rail can cope with a loss of £2 they would never have had if I hadn't stepped on the train in the first place. I offered to pay for a ticket, when he said "no you ain't got enough" I said "well can I pay as much I have", "ehh no, I have a job, I have a uniform, I have a badge which says "inspector" on it, your going down booooooy!" What would have happened if he had sold me a ticket for as much as I had? They would have still made a profit of however much the ticket came to, I would say that would have been fairly resolved, but no, they proceed further I offer them an apology and a penalty fine, still not reasonable, well I will leave for Southern to show us all what reasonable measures are the coming week or two when Southern press charges will show us all what a corporation believes to be fair practice (the most efficient and effective extraction of capital from a resource). Old COdga I will be going to Amberley this weekend and I will be sure and confirm whether or not the "permit to travel meter" is still broken, as i feel that is a contentious issue and southern have no right using the "ticket facilities" argument to prosecute others with it being perpetually out of order. Kind regards and once again many thanks one and all.

lol try a journey home, the 20 or so mile hitchhike was a definite no!

Well though you may feel I had no intention of paying my fare I did attempt to pay my fare but unfortunately had less than sufficient money for the full fare, sadly if he had come and saw me at pulborough he'd probably have said how much have you got, ok that is enough to get you as far as billingshurst, then I would have got off there and withdrew some money in order to get to Christ's hospital an hour later, as it is he caught up with me after Billingshurst and I didn't have enough to buy a ticket from Amberley to Christ's hospital. I am just going to take it on the chin. thanks for your insight.

Wow that really makes you angry, get some context into your life perhaps? I never once asked for a free ride, just a slightly reduced fare. What these laws do is criminalise the poor, granted there are perhaps some people who can afford to buy a ticket who don't, and yes maybe they are guilty of a crime of sorts, (i can't see how the train company loses by people using their trains?) but the majority without tickets are people who either can't afford to or can't buy a ticket due to wider circumstances, should these people be denied a right to travel at all? Not only would you see them denied a right to travel you would see them hit with impossible fines which further cripple their finances and keep them in a vicious cycle of poverty, "crime", unemployment and debt.

Lot of questions i'll try to answer them all as best i can, I basically said yes I did not have a ticket so let me pay you compensation of twice the original fare, i'm on JSA so can afford to part with around £20 I don't see why the punishment should be more than that? They haven't even asked me to pay a penalty fare, just, "What have you done?" well.... "Ok your going to court", ehm If a regular train attendant had come I would have purchased as much of a ticket as I could, i have found in the past regular ticket collectors have a far more humane approach, and take into account personal circumstances etc, I think the cost of a ticket from Amberley to Christ's Hospital varies depending on the time, it's around 5.90 though, I had £5 in coins maybe I should have offerred the penalty fare man my trainers or the book I was engrossed in as payment? Try buying online tickets for Amberley you get this message: There is a metal box there which swallows money called a print your own ticket device or something but it has never worked, the only purpose It has is to frustrate and entertain people on the platform when some tourist attempts to use it and ends up loosing their money haha, it's hilarious I was there one time and some old guy and his wife must have put in about £15 before they realised it was just a dead machine, you can't buy a ticket at Amberley where I boarded a train, not only that the nearest cash point is about a 6mile trek from the train station :/ Yeah Pulborough is one stop closer than Amberley where i got on, it goes Amb-Pul-Bil-ChrHsp, if I had got off the train of course I wouldn't have paid for a ticket, what would you expect me to go and buy one from the ticket machine go home and never use it? Would love to know what basis this whole thing has in law, are they going to be asking the court to press charges on me, if so I assume they will notify me of the charges to be brought against me and I will have to defend myself? I shall write back to them next week as they have misprinted my name is there anything you think i should include?

Only really the ruthless and unsympathetic way penalty fare guys go about their business.

Hi everybody I recently travelled from Amberley Station to Christ's Hospital via train, I use the trains frequently and as Amberley lacks the facilities to purchase a ticket that means me running the gauntlet of having no "valid ticket for travel". This occasion the train had just departed Biillingshurst and about to pull into my destination when a young man in all black came asking for tickets, i told him i had no ticket and could I buy one please, for some reason I said Pulborough to Christ's hospital, then he immediately said "OK son thats a penalty fare", or words to that effect. I immediately said there was nowhere to buy a ticket where I got on the train and he said there are facilities to buy tickets at Pulborough, I then retracted and said I got on at Amberley. This made him obviously very angry and he began using aggressive speech and accusing me of such and such, what made his day was when he asked me how much money I had and I said £5 he smiled and enjoyed that that wasn't enough to buy my ticket, which was an even greater offense apparently than avoiding a fare:| I wilfully obliged to give him my details though it meant I missed my stop and was sent on my way told to be expecting a letter and possible court summons. Well I recently received a letter with a box asking what had occurred, i foolishly filled this all in without seeking any kind of legal advice, told them the story above and basically admitted I didn't have the money to pay for the ticket, In my letter to them I also made an offer in order to nip this in the bud and avoid any conflict, to pay twice the original ticket and admin fees in compensation to them. I thought this would at least indicate to them the fact I am not trying to **** them over, I admitted I was wrong to be travelling without a ticket but basically asked them to leave the courts out of this. However in response to my letter and offer to settle the dispute they have sent me a letter stating a summons has been applied for and will be forwarded to me shortly so it looks like I will have to incur the costs of magistrates court in addition to my penalty fare, this is wholly ridiculous as they are in effect trying to obtain blood from a stone.. I would be very grateful if anyone with experience in this could offer me any advice, in the most recent letter the "prosecuter" offered me the opportunity to write back to them with any further info I think may be relevant, does anyone think there is any chance of preventing this bull**** escapade from escalating, I am hoping that the courts will see the nonsense in trying to get money out of someone who relies upon the state to buy food?

Thanks for Clarification!

No one pays any attention to that vulnerable persons guidance, it obviously doesn't have the force of law.

Fines office who i spoke to were adamant that simply being unemployed does not put one in the Vulnerable category for future reference, I guess one has to have health issues.

Excellent information Rae, have you much of an interest in the study of words and their meaning? Hi Donkey, i study the works of Thomas Paine and John Locke, I believe Government and the Law was created by people for the good of people, now it seems people exist for the good of the government and to produce revenue for the state and corporations. -Mario Savio I can assure you all the time is near at hand.

hmmm Department for Constitutional Affairs - Enforcement - National Standards for Enforcement Agents