Pregnant, sitting on the floor ... then unjustly fined for fare dodging

A teacher two months away from giving birth ended up being found guilty by a court — because she hadn't printed out a ticket she bought online.

- Shane Hickey reports

Daisy Mumba didn’t think her train journey from Reading to Sheffield could get any worse. Seven months pregnant and unable to get to the seat she had booked because of the number of people onboard, she had to sit on the floor, constantly getting up and down to let other passengers past.

But worse it was to get. A seemingly minor error to do with printing out her ticket prompted a series of calamitous events and left her with a conviction for not having a valid ticket, even though she had spent £70 on one before the journey.

Her experience is a salutary lesson for anyone who relies too much on the advances of technology, and a reminder that not all parts of the transport system operate seamlessly in the digital age.

The 32-year-old teacher from Sheffield had been returning from a wedding last August when she bought a ticket from Slough to Sheffield, with a change in Reading, on the Trainline app. Her first problem, she says, was that she could not get to her seat and had to sit on the floor next to the toilet on the CrossCountry service.

When a ticket inspector arrived to check her ticket, Mumba showed her what she thought was her ticket on the Trainline app but was told it was not valid as she needed to have it printed out. “I showed her my ticket on the app and she told me it wasn’t valid. I have used the app for over a decade and have never been asked to do this,” says Mumba.

She went to the ticket office in Sheffield and got it printed out, as she says she was instructed to do, and thought little more of it.