Ways to avoid paying your train fare

just dont look at the umm ticketty people

strap dynamite around your midriff ,board said train and start reciting from the koran.

jobs a good'un.

Have someone pi55 on you and fall asleep.

The ticket guy wont come near you.

get the bus

Hiding doesn't work when you get off at a stop where you have to pass an inspector. :(

get the bus

Sod that I hate buses I'll take me chance on the train. I just don't want to pay £60 for the privileged of 2 hour train journey. A rip off if you ask me.

carry a highly visible firearm

Hiding doesn't work when you get off at a stop where you have to pass an inspector

I'm traveling from Wakefield to Kings Cross, both open stations from what I understand.

no chance of not getting ticket inspected on that one.........I would have suggested climbing on the roof as the ticket inspector came, BUT


A. There are overhead power cables

B. The windows dont open.

I was thinking off hiding under the table when the inspector came. My mates legs should obscure the inspectors view.

Hide in a suitcase get your mate to ask a passenger to take it to your destination station for a fee.....£10.....

There are one lot of kids on my line who do it in a group of 5. They each sit in a different carriage and warn each other on mobiles when an inspector comes so the others can jump off on the next stop. One of them takes the rap and stalls the inspector so the others can get away. That one will pay the fine then they split it £4 each.

However inspectors are so rare on the trains that they get away with hundreds of pounds of unpaid tickets.

Amazing the ingenuity of these kids. One of them even set light to a dustbin once to stall the inspector.

walk

And then people moan when the fares go up.

Just pay your fare or walk or take a taxi and see how much that costs you.

I work on the railway.
I heard a tale not long ago where a lad gave the guard a load of abuse and refused to pay.The guard didn't argue with him but had a quiet word with the few passengers that were left on the train(it was the last one of the evening)and told them that the doors in that carriage were out of order and could they move to the next carriage.On arrival at the non-payers station he(non-payer) discovered that he couldn't get off the train - the guard had locked the doors himself.By the time he had got to the other carriage it was too late.The guard had dispatched the passengers quickly and closed the doors.Non-payer ended up getting off at the next stop,14 miles down the line at 11:00 at night.
He'll think twice next time.

I take it that was just a tale?

And yes I do pay for my train tickets, but they're not cheap

It's true PF.

ok fair enough

I have in past been with mates 10 years ago that wanted to avoid paying the train fare, and did it myself on unmanned stations when I was with them

peer pressure an that I suppose, as I never wanted to dodge the fare

I buy a weekly ticket so avoiding the inspector isn't going to do anything. Student discount too.

I was on a train today, had to buy a ticket on board. Bloke tried to stiff me for £20 when the real fare (super off-peak return) was only £16.20 - luckily I knew this as I had checked online before leaving. When I pointed out his mistake he charged me the correct fare, but how many times do train operators get away with this scam? I bet a lot of passengers fall for it :(

**ing hell, how far are you's all travelling for these fares?

Last time I was on a train it was packed,could not believe I had paid the fare and was unable to obtain a seat.

phil........off the top of my head if it's the same day fare which is the most expensive

it can be a £45 return from here to dundee 80 miles

I can do that in a car at no more than £24, could do it for £20 in petrol even, easily

i mean a return coming back 2 days later, but bought it on the day

This tactic will work on a busy train, done it loads (peak times only when train is busy and it cannot be from the initial departure point):

In a suit or at least a shirt & tie take your seat part way through the trains journey. You need a book or newspaper. The aim here is not to look like your average chav fare scammer.

As ticket man/woman walks up and down saying tickets from xxxx, just sit there double cool and carry on reading. On a busy train there is hardly any chance whatsoever that they will remember all of the faces, especially if there are people standing too.
Remember, the key to this is to look very calm like you've already shown them the ticket. They home in on the people who are fidgeting. Amateur scammers are so obvious. Even if you feel your heart beat you must stay motionless and keep your eyes down reading. Make sure you have the money on you just in case.

Easy peasey lemon squeezy! And it's a good buzz too!

I once sat next to a guy who looked at me in comeplete disbelief when I did it, but he daren't say anything I was about twice his size, haha.

You could take a broom and pretend to be the cleaner.

Another good thing to do when employing the above scam is once you are used to the position that the train stops when in that station, stand at the centre of the platform. Quickly look either side to see where the inspector is and then head to the opposite end of the train. If the train is large one and busy it is unlikely that they will have time to get through all of the train if you are onyl catching it for one stop.

So assuming that everybody adopts your a\ttitude and nobody pays...Who will provide the trains and maint them and the rail system in general?

I remember I got inspected twice because the idiot didn't realise I had just taken off my jacket ffs.

Once went on the lash to Bournemouth (live in Pompey) and mates had to pay for taxi to go back to Bournemouth train station at about 6pm as I was so hammered.

Got on first train and collapsed in the bit where the toilets are, between 2 carriages.

My tip is therefore to have 4 Long Island Iced Teas, 2 Stellas, 4 Kronenbourgs, 2 G&Ts and a Mojito.

The guard won't come anywhere near you.

buy a ticket for half the journey

ticket man remembers you

fall asleep and he wont bother you

if does wake you then you say sorry i missed my actual stop, but its unlikely he will wake you

when you get to "your stop"

you get off, tell the barrier yo fell asleep and you need to make a phone call

a jouney for approx 40% less

dunno if unlikely but i have been woken up by a guard before in Dundee

punter

but has he checked your ticket previously?

if so then you are scot free till the end

disclaimer: i have NOT tried this

i have in the past knowing when its a busy footie train is get up, go towards the inspector and walk past him

never checks me

neevr run away, as you cant go far

yea he did check my ticket previously as he knew i was getting off in dundee, that's why he woke me

naydam 01 Jan 22:11
So assuming that everybody adopts your a\ttitude and nobody pays...Who will provide the trains and maint them and the rail system in general?
................................................................................

Everybody won't adopt this attitude so there is nothing to worry about. As scams go this is so low level it is hardly worth worrying about. I don't do it now, the trains are that unreliable I drive and pay parking which is more expensive, but I got to get to where I need to be.

simple answer, get a seat near the toilet, when someone goes into the toilet, give it a minute then knock on the door and shout tickets please, when ticket comes under the door your sorted

Like it Horus!

Yep, its nasty and there's an innocent victim, but fair play Horus, you get there for nowt :D

Just get the firm you work for to buy you a first class season ticket, sit back and enjoy watching the inventive methods the underclasses use to save a few pennies.

The firm you work for? Get a job to get away from paying train fare? Noooo ty.

Sorry - assumed a few of you on here worked....but you're all professional gamblers, so I stand corrected. You're just fare dodging for the thrill of it, and not to save money (phew).

Working is for mugs. Student with maximum loans, grants and bursaries is great. :)

Does getting a job mean you lose your sense of humour?

That's reminds me of another. I went and sat in the first class without a ticket. Nobody asked for my ticket, but someone brought me a newspaper. Get in!!!!

JOCI Club 01 Jan 23:38
Just get the firm you work for to buy you a first class season ticket

Im interested in this process of 'just get'

Does that involve grovelling at all?

Brodie 01 Jan 23:55
Does getting a job mean you lose your sense of humour?

Depends how you take my posts.

JOCI, don't think HMRC will ever buy me a season ticket of any class!, and I do travel on HMRC's behalf!

Not managed to wangle it myself either, and my ticket cost £4700+.

almost £100 a week?

where do you travel?

To London on West Coast line.

from? Manchester?

Milton Keynes!

would never have thought milton keynes was on the west coast!

It is a bit strange but Euston is West Coast and it seems that Kings Cross is East Coast line.

I don't know anything about your lines down there since am up here, might be useful to know how far you travel in miles in 1 journey?

Only about 50+ miles each way (and a few miles on the underground). That's Standard Class too.

and that's £100 a week?, yer being robbed

And that's heavily discounted due to buying the annual season ticket.

well they're all on 50k plus salaries down there so no bother really

Are they.

the ones that chat on chit-chat seems to say that

If you allow for taxation on your salary, that's way more than 10% of the net income of someone on £50k, which is a decent chunk of your earnings, and just for the privilege of travelling to work.

best move closer

Housing too expensive then. Never get a 4 bed detached in London for a reasonable amount. Rather do the commute.

goodness knows how the ones that work in supermarkets in London live

read and mp3 player is the best or mp3 player and pretend to be asleep, the mp3 is a great excuse for not hearing him calling "tickets". ;-)

I never used to pay for tickets, now the have barriers and ticket gates at the stations I used to use I simply just travel by train a lot less

Dave Edwards. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but my post was meant as a rhetorical question directed at the non-payers in general and not to you personally.

naydam, no problem mate. It was a good few years ago now. It was a way of raising a little betting bank!!

how do you scam the ticket barriers at London Waterloo?

Not many ticket inspectors on the train but need a valid ticket to get through the barriers.

how do you scam the ticket barriers at London Waterloo?

Not many ticket inspectors on the train but need a valid ticket to get through the barriers.