Bruce wrote:
Permit To Travel machines predate the widespread use of automatic ticket
barriers. In the old days it was frequently possible to travel between two
stations and not encounter any ticket inspection whatsoever at any point
in
the journey, especially if you travelled off-peak and/or didn't
start/finish
at one of the biggest stations. It was thus very easy to get a PTT for
just
5p and if you did come across an inspector you could claim that the ticket
machines at the start of your journey weren't giving change or taking
notes
(something an inspector on the train or at another station could not
verify)
and produce a £5 (or higher) note and pay your fare.

While doing this, you would have to be careful not to jangle the other
coins in your pocket. That would give the lie to your claim of having
only 5p.

You could plead coppers, which I can't recall PTTs or TVMs taking.
Alternatively use a wallet with a tight coin compartment or a separate coin
holder.

The problem with the Permit to Travel machines is that they were based
on trust. If it was ever safe to trust people with this kind of
system (some would say that in the 1950s and 60s, it was) it certainly
isn't now.

True but it's the vicious circle that if machines go down and/or are locked
away for the evening and weekends (as used to happen at my local station)
then there are few ways to legitimately obtain a ticket at the start of your
journey. I've had problems with my Oyster running out in the past, primarily
when on the student discount because thanks to annual reregistration at the
college and TfL annually issuing a new card I invariably had a gap each year
between my season ticket expiring and being able to get a new one with the
sizable discount. Because TfL staff always refused to transfer credit from
my old to my new cards (and because this was before National Rail signed up
to PAYG which made it even less useful in this part of town) I generally
didn't keep much on them anyway.

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