Train passengers are being warned a "popular excuse" for not having a ticket won't work any more after changes have been rolled out.
According to Northern, conductors are often met with travellers who say “I’ve got a ticket but my phone has died”. But Northern is now urging customers using digital tickets on their services to ensure they always have sufficient battery power to present their ticket for inspection, or face a £100 penalty fare.
Conductors, it said, have "no choice" but to issue the fines to anyone without a valid, viewable ticket as they are unable to distinguish between genuine customers caught "power short" and those deliberately attempting to fare-evade.
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In the last 12 months, Northern has installed more than 11,800 plugs and 17,200 USB sockets on-board their trains – providing what the company says is ample opportunity for customers to charge their devices.
Northern has also begun a trial with a company called BattPoint to provide power packs at stations for those travelling without their phone charger or power cable. They cost 99p for the first 10 minutes or £3.99 for the day and come with Micro USB, Type-c and iOS adapters.
This means they are suitable for a range of devices including those by Apple and Samsung, as well as games consoles like Nintendo Switch.
Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, told the ECHO: “Customers not only have a duty to buy a ticket before they board one of our trains, but also to be able to present it for inspection.
“We were fascinated by research from BattPoint which suggests 50% of smartphone and tablet users run out of battery at least once a day and 96% carrying no form of backup power with them.
“Through this trial – and the roll-out of out of nearly 30,000 plugs and USB sockets on our trains – we’re doing our bit to make sure no-one finds themselves ‘out of juice’ when they hear the words ‘tickets please’.”
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