Penalty Fare Appeal Support

It has been reported to us that rail operator Merseyrail, commonly known by locals as MiseryRail, have made a quick buck from unsuspecting visitors to Aintree this past weekend.

Race goers wishing to travel home using Merseyrail services were forced to purchase a £3 day pass before being allowed to board the train.

Passengers were unable to purchase a £2.25 single ticket to get home. It has been reported that confrontations between staff and passengers occurred who were furious having to pay an extra 75p for a ticket that they didn’t need.

Merseyrail sure made some money back from their ‘bet’ today.

At the time of writing Merseyrail have not commented on this issue. We await their comments and will publish as soon as we receive them.

Today we have received comment from Merseyrail, which by the sounds of the comments received looks like Merseyrail really are not interested at all and looked for every excuse to avoid the real issue that passengers had to buy a £3 ticket instead of the normal £2.25.

Have you ever been at Aintree station during the Grand National Festival? If you have, you’ll know that some 90.000 people pass through the (small) station during the 3 days and that public order and crowd control are the priority for us, BTP and Merseyside police. To manage the crowds the whole of the carpark is used as a queuing area with crowd barriers and lots of staff. This year we provided many toilets as the lack of these had given rise to incidents of disorder (use your imagination…) In previous years and entertainment in the form of a band and samba dancers to lighten the atmosphere whilst queuing. We also handed out 10.000 flipflops to the ladies on their way home who tend to carry their shoes in their hands and walk barefoot.

We double the train service to 8 trains per hour in each direction to get people to and from the race course as quickly and comfortably as possible.

Our booking office is unreachable during the 3 days because of the crowd control measures and therefore the normal range of tickets cannot be issued. We sell a fixed price network ticket at £3 which for the vast majority of passengers represents a considerable discount on their normal fare. This is done make the process of issuing tickets and money changing hands as quick and efficient as possible and to keep the flow of the crowd going to prevent restlessness further back in the enormous queues to make sure no pushing, crushing and other dangerous incidents occur.

We have had 1 complaint from a passenger requesting a £0.75 refund which we will comply with. Any other passengers who do the same will be looked at on their merit.

Rudi

We would advise anyone who was charged the £3 ticket to contact Merseyrail via their website and request a refund of the overcharged 75p. (It will cost Miseryrail more to process it then the 75p you’ll get back)

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