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Unread 28-03-2014, 15:32   #47
berneyarms
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Join Date: Aug 2013
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson View Post
NTA set the rules and Irish Rail's funding is dependent on this. Irish Rail has indicated to the NTA that it will operate a national penalty fare policy to meet its obligation in contract.

Irish Rail is obliged to report quarterly on revenue protection matters.

The issue is not the policy its how edge cases are handled. We can argue all day but in this specific case the passenger did not hold a valid ticket, that fact is not denied by anyone.

The issue was the act of purchase which falls outside the penalty fares procedure per Rail Safety Act 2005
I understand all of that - and with regard to the specific incident, I've already said that the OP has unfortunately broken the rules, and there isn't an awful lot that can be done.

However, as a general comment, I think that implementing a national penalty fare area is the wrong way to protect revenue - I think it will cause more problems and issues than it solves, and lead to more of incidents such as this where there is an element of doubt.

Far better from both a revenue policy and from a customer service perspective to have a checker on board each Intercity train, as you end up with everyone having a valid ticket, and you have someone on board that passengers can speak to directly.

Are RUI saying that they prefer a national penalty fare policy to having a checker on each Intercity train?
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