A teenager is having to ‘scrape’ together £129.50 after he was fined for sitting in the wrong first class section of a ‘very full’ train.
Theo Griffiths, an 18-year-old student from Boston, Lincolnshire, decided to take the train to London King’s Cross because the journey was ‘too long of a distance to drive.’
He was travelling to the capital to see some colleagues in their office, but when Theo boarded his Thameslink train, it was so full that he couldn’t find a seat.
The 18-year-old had previously seen messages stating that he could use the train’s first-class seating as an alternative – and chose to do so.
But Theo was fined a whopping £129.50 for sitting at the front of the train, with Thameslink arguing that such a rule only applies to the first class seats at the train’s rear, not its front.
Theo said: ‘The guard was very rude and hostile. Others who also got fined argued back, they got £100 and £150 fines.
‘He couldn’t even answer me when I asked if the 21-day reduced penalty period paused if you appealed – he said he didn’t know.
‘I should be able to scrape a bit from savings to pay, but it’s still entirely disproportionate.
‘I was commuting from Boston, I have to drive over an hour to get to the train station to even be able to get to London. I travel by train because it’s too long of a distance to drive and I’d rather be productive.’
Theo expressed his disillusionment at the fine in a X post which has gained more than 6.5 million views in 24 hours.
The northerner complained: ‘It is really unacceptable to expect a student to be able to afford this disproportionate amount for the crime of getting a seat on a super busy train that I’d already paid a silly amount for.’
In a response to his post, Thameslink wrote: ‘Hi Theo, are you able to advise where you boarded the train, what time and direction please?
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‘If the front, first class facilities were in action and you didn’t hold a first class ticket then travelling in this portion of the train could result in a penalty fare’
Thameslink’s website states that the first class seating at the back of its trains is ‘always declassified’ – which does not apply at the front.
Theo’s post was flooded by people complaining about the ‘ridiculous’ rule.
One user, Adam Copp, wrote: ‘Crazy complex rules for which part of the train you can stand in, and you don’t even have them prominently displayed on the train, platform or tickets.
‘How is the average user of the train network meant to memorize pages and pages of rules from every TOC on the network?
The Department for Transport was approached for comment but said the issue ‘was a matter for the train operator.’
Theo’s run-in with Thameslink comes just weeks after another passenger, 22-year-old Sam Williamson, was threatened with legal action for buying the wrong train ticket.
Sam saved £1.90 on his journey from Broadbottom to Manchester on September 5 by buying an ‘anytime’ ticket on the Northern app – something which is normally only valid for off-peak trains.
Following his journey, the graduate received a letter from Northern threatening legal action, but following widespread media coverage, the rail provider backed down.
Sam urged Northern and other rail companies to ‘simplify ticketing fares.’
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