Restricted Train Ticket

[tali1]

What happens if you use a restricted train ticket (ie a particular train operator ) but use another train operator going to same destination ? Do you get fined ? or pay the extra amount if applicable ?

[New Judge]

It's largely up to the ticket inspector (and how you manage the "attitude test").

The remedies can range from nothing, through paying the excess fare, a penalty fare or court action.

[Cloverjo]

I thought restricted tickets only restrict you to a particular time and route.
If you were going from Penzance to Edinburgh you’d be using different operators.

[tali1]

Cloverjo i think the ones you mean are Advanced Tickets

[ubasses]

Depends on the route, from my local station to London I can by a ticket and get on either of the train Companies stopping.
When working and going to Birmingham from the local station I had to use the Company for the ticket I had been supplied with, not doing so meant I would have to pay the full fare again.

[Buenchico]

[From someone who used to run a railway station]:

If you buy a ticket which is restricted to one particular route or operator, and then try to use it outside of its terms and conditions, you're regarded simply as having no valid ticket at all.

That means that the ticket inspector can charge you the full 'walk-up' fare for the journey or, if you're on a 'penalty fares' route, you can be charged a (higher than usual) penalty fare to the next station that the train calls at, plus the full walk-up fare from there to your destination. (There's also a theoretical possibility of you being taken to court and fined for travelling without a valid ticket but that wouldn't happen unless the ticket inspector believed that you were tryin to defraud the system).

If it's only a route change though, (rather than a change of operator), the ticket inspector is permitted to allow you to upgrade from one route to the other, upon payment of the difference.