So when your daughter and niece get caught (and at some point they will get caught) your post above can be used by TIL, the train Co or Police etc against them.Struck a chord with me, as my 20-something daughter's budget is predicated on her only paying for her daily rail commute c.20% of the time (not at all with my blessing) "why would I purchase a season ticket when I only pay once a week".
She does this by having an e-ticket purchase pending, but never actually clicking 'pay' unless she sees a ticket inspector, which more often than not she doesn't.
My niece who regularly visits her boyfriend via train brags about using the same tactic to hardly ever pay.
In both cases, and as in the BBC article the stations are barrier-less.
It seems bizarre to me that Northern leave such an obvious loophole open to be exploited.
Is there no check on the actual time of the ticket purchase vs the commencement of the journey?
Seems odd to me that Northern allow such an obvious loophole.
I f payment is made via an app or credit card at a TVM or ticket office, the time of the transaction is automatically recorded As part of the audit record.
Roaming, random large scale ticket blocks at stations is the way to deal with this problem.