Discretion urged over train fines

A study found people were queuing longer than target times

A rail-passenger watchdog is calling on ticket inspectors to use discretion and not issue fines when people have faced unacceptably long ticket queues.

Passenger Focus's comments follow a study into queuing times for tickets.

The study suggests one in every six passengers wait for more than three minutes in off-peak times.

The Department of Transport says penalty fares should not be charged if people have to wait longer than three minutes, or five at peak times.

At London Kings Cross station the study found "one in four passengers waiting longer than the industry standard of five minutes in the peak".

'No penalty'

Passenger Focus chief executive Anthony Smith said: "It should be the train operator's responsibility to notify staff at the platform and on the train that passengers stuck in a queue were unable to purchase a ticket due to time constraints and should not be penalised."

He said the watchdog had received complaints about the issue, but that the situation did "seem to be varying very much from train company to train company".

Where train operators do operate penalty fares schemes they exercise sensible discretion Association of Train Operating Companies

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's iPM programme, he argued that monitoring queuing times needed to be "built into the specification for the train company franchise".

He added that the Department for Transport should "lock this into" train company contracts.

The Department for Transport said: "We already have powers to stop penalty fares being charged if our guidance is not being met. Recent franchises commit train companies to providing more ticket machines."

The Association of Train Operating Companies said: "The vast majority of customers are able to purchase tickets within the target queuing times, despite the 45% increase in rail passengers since the targets were first introduced.

"Where train operators do operate penalty fares schemes they exercise sensible discretion and will only issue a penalty fare where they believe that a customer has had a reasonable opportunity to buy a ticket and decided not to."