A “GOLDEN ticket” glitch on one of Britain’s biggest railways meant Brits could travel for free.
A software error was discovered in Great Western Railway’s (GWR) ticket system which allowed passengers to travel across the country free of charge.
Digital seat reservations were accepted by automatic barriers at stations, even if the passenger hadn’t bought a ticket.
Seat reservations are free to make and intended for people on long haul journeys.
But customers found that these reservations could be made without buying a ticket, and could then be scanned at any barrier in the country.
One person was able to travel 500 miles without spending a penny.
Tramline of duty
Vicky McClure was ordered off a tram named in her honour after being accused of fare evasion
TRAIN SMASH
Man fighting for life hospital after train crashes into car at level crossing
This loophole – which was the result of a “coding error” – has now been fixed.
It’s unclear how many people were able to exploit the error.
GWR warned that anyone travelling without a valid ticket is “committing a criminal offence”, even if as a result of the glitch.
The glitch first occurred on February 24 when GWR joined a new ticket software provider called SilverRail.
When the seat reservation was scanned by a member of the train crew, it showed as an anytime single ticket which the crew were told to accept.
The loophole was flagged to GWR a week ago, and has since fixed the error on March 11.
The blunder also led to pre-booked tickets disappearing from accounts on the GWR website, confusing tens of thousands of passengers.
A journalist from The Telegraph demonstrated the loophole by travelling over 500 miles in first class on several different firms’ trains.
He bought valid tickets for all the train journeys – to avoid breaking the law – but explained that he could’ve completed these journeys without opening his wallet.
The journalist’s trips spanned from Tiverton Parkway in Devon, to Wigan North Western in Greater Manchester.
A SilverRail spokesman said: “This was the result of a coding error and GWR are disabling this loophole imminently. This is a top priority for SilverRail to correct the underlying error.”
A Great Western Railway spokesman said: “We wrote to all account holders ahead of the system change to explain how they could retain historic transaction records, and over 1.6 million customers have successfully moved across in recent weeks.
“Tickets purchased through GWR.com are also automatically emailed to customers at the time of purchase.
“Customers who may have missed those emails can contact our online support team [on 03457 000 125 and select option 3], who will be happy to guide them through how to retrieve them.
“We are also aware of a separate issue where some station gatelines were accepting seat reservations as valid for entry.
“Reservations are not valid travel documents, and anyone travelling without a valid ticket is committing a criminal offence.”
It comes after South Western Railway reported that upaid fares cost the railway nearly £240 million each year.
Roughly 4.6 per cent of users of its network travel without a valid ticket.
A recent poll by YouGov found 68 per cent disapproved of deliberate fare evasion, adding they believed it was a serious problem that should be penalised.
Tory-turned-Reform Robert Jenrick recently made headlines after he confronted fare-dodgers on the Tube.
The former Shadow Justice Secretary highlighted brazen lawlessness in London by filming himself collaring yobs who jumped barriers.
His video, viewed nearly five million times, led Transport for London to respond: “Fare evasion is unacceptable.”
