[LJ2ME] D'oh 2

[slycat]

Following on from yesterday's stupidity, I got to the train station this morning and realised I didn't have my wallet or my train season ticket on me. The reason being that I decided to wear a different pair of trousers this morning and simply forgot to transfer my wallet. I only had £2.50 on me which isn't enough for a single fare. I'd be very late if I went home to get my wallet and I ran the risk of being fined £10 if I travelled without a ticket. I didn't want to be late again so I went for the latter option. On the train, I spotted one of the people who also gets the same service as him. I somehow gathered the courage to explain the predicament I was in and ask if the could lend me £2 so I could buy a ticket. As I see him every day on the train, I could simply pay him back tomorrow. To my suprise he lent me the cash and we ended up talking about trains for the duration of the journey. More importantly, he told me about a sneaky way to save £20 a month on my season ticket by buying a ticket to another station but it's still valid for the statiou I go to! Seems that forgetting my wallet wasn't such a bad thing afterall.

Comments

[gerald_duck]

You're way too shy, you know that? (-8

Personally, I'd have taken my chances on never being asked for a ticket. If I was, that's the time to reach into my pocket and go "oh fuck where's my wallet?". I'd lay good odds on being able to blag my way out of the £10 penalty, just by pretending not to have noticed the missing wallet until it was too late.

In any case, paying £4.50 to avoid the risk of a £10 fine is only worthwhile if there's more than a 45% chance of being asked to show your ticket.

Now imagine how much worse it would have been if your wallet had contained the identity card that Blunkett had made it illegal not to carry!

[xendragon.livejournal.com]

you can't blag your way out of a fine, they post an invoice to you if you dont have the cash, i guess you could give a fake address though

[gerald_duck]

The inspector has the option of overlooking your lack of ticket. My hunch (untested) is that most of them would, if they believed you that you really were a season ticket holder, and you were good enough at pleading for mercy. (-8

[slycat.livejournal.com]

Ticket inspectors/guards rarely have a better nature to appeal to. True, you may get lucky but they normally have a zero tollerance policy on such things. Also, had I got past the inspector, I would still have to blag my way through the barriers at my destination station. Metal barriers don't respond well to verbal excuses ;)

[gerald_duck]

Shrug. I've got a one in three success rate at getting let off speeding tickets, when going more than 25mph over the limit. And that was just by looking meek, apologising, and not saying anything that put my foot in it — I didn't have any excuse remotely as good, nor as genuine, as "I've left my season ticket at home".

I'd have assumed ticket inspectors were easier to sweet-talk than policemen. Maybe I'm naïve.

You didn't mention the barrier. Hmm. The barrier is more of an issue. (-8

[slycat.livejournal.com]

That said, I had no proof of identity on me so I could have just pretended to be someone else. Apparantly they do some sort of check that the name and address is valid... so you could just pretend to be someone you don't like or something.

[slycat.livejournal.com]

I'd rather pay £4.50 than have to get the aggro of paying a fine, being made a public embarrasment and run the risk of being thrown off the train prior to my stop.

[a-skunk.livejournal.com]

Heh, I had to deal with them when I first got there and used the train. My succesful excuse was that I was an American and had no idea what I was doing. Which conveniently happened to be true!