BELEAGUERED Farnham rail passengers are increasingly being unfairly treated as fare dodgers and penalised by South West Trains, it was claimed this week. Those who board a train without a ticket for whatever reason, are being hit with penalty tickets, or forced to buy the most expensive peak travel tickets, with no excuses and no railcard discounts allowed, even for children, sometimes doubling the cost of the journey. A front-page article in The Times claimed SWT guards are being judged according to the amount they collect in penalties and told not to accept explanations, such as ticket office queues, unmanned stations or out-of-action ticket machines. A confidential memo to staff stated: "Once on the train, even if they approach you, they are only entitled to buy a full fare ticket... do not use discretion just because it's the easy option." South West Trains has denied any new policy, claiming staff can still use their discretion. But one passenger told The Herald: "Travellers on the Farnham/Alton line to Waterloo have been suffering under SW Trains' new 'crude and rude' ways." The Alton Line Users' Association (ALUA) - already up in arms over the recent 20 per cent increase in some fares and the slow and easily disrupted service - has added the heavy-handed approach to its list of woes to be brought up at an impending meeting with rail managers. ALUA chairman Chris Campbell explained: "It is causing a lot of problems at the moment, going through literally from Ash Vale to Alton, especially when the stations are not manned and the machines are out of action. "Passengers get off at the other end and are handed a penalty fare. We are monitoring it very carefully." Mr Campbell said that unsuspecting off-peak travellers, who don't know the system, have been particularly hit. And he stressed that the get-tough policy was premature, bearing in mind that the new electronic machines that issue the a wider range of tickets are not yet in place at the local stations. "If you wanted a ticket for travel the next day you couldn't buy it at the current machines. They're not geared up for it. We are hearing guards have been given instruction to be heavy handed, but passengers should at least be given a chance, otherwise they have to go through a load of appeal proceedures." SW Trains, in its statement, insisted: "There is no new policy: We are simply enforcing the existing policy that you must have a valid ticket before you board a train. "However. if a passenger has a legitimate reason for not being able to buy a ticket, such as ticket machines not working or ticket office windows closed because of staff sickness, then we tell staff to use their discretion. "The staff memo categorically instructs guards that there will always be occasions when you will have to use discretion. We use a pager system to communicate out information about extenuating circumstances like faulty ticket machines." Mike Roberts, another ALUA member, who travels around 40,000 miles a year on public transport, regretted the pressure on guards, who in the past seemed to exercise their discretion. It was the travelling ticket inspectors (TTIs) who were not willing to cut any slack in the system. "Some of the TTIs are very unremitting in their attitudes and it is embarrassing to watch on occasions. "Most guards seem to be quite reasonable as to how they apply commonsense. If they work the routes, they know who is bona fide." Mr Roberts said that Monday morning travel was a particular problem. For instance, a businessman might learn on Sunday at 4pm that he needed to go to Manchester early next morning. Local ticket offices would be closed, and the machines would not supply the specialist type of ticket he needed. "Really, you almost have to have a degree to work your way around the system to ascertain the most appropriate tickets and then you have to find a ticket office open where you can purchase it." He believed that the move to penalise more passengers, like the increased fares, was a direct result of the cost to SWT of retaining its franchise. "They have overbid for the franchise seemingly and they are having to claw back that money." Mr Roberts also sympathised with RMT, the railworkers' union, which last Friday moved to warn South West Trains that the discretion of guards dealing with passengers was "paramount", in order to avoid confrontational situations. "Guards have a difficult job with regard to their own safety - I have seen it sometimes. "They have to operate with discretion in a way that doesn't put themselves at risk. And the company has a legal responsibility as an employer to their guards."
