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If I have a Rail Travel Voucher, received due to delay repay, and the ticket office at my departing station is closed, and I obviously cannot use it the ticket machine, can I board the train and pay the guard if one is onboard / at my destination if there is not one?

Is this affected by driver-only operation / penalty fare? Also, if the ticket office is also closed at my destination and there was no guard, am I free to just leave the station if there is no-one around to try to purchase the ticket from? If I had alternative means to pay at the machine (e.g., card) would I still be ok?

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If I have a Rail Travel Voucher, received due to delay repay, and the ticket office at my departing station is closed, and I obviously cannot use it the ticket machine, can I board the train and pay the guard if one is onboard / at my destination if there is not one?

It appears that you can, though I can't recall a train operating company explicitly considering this scenario. If we go to https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/366/regulation/6/made, it says

(4) In paragraph (2)(a), there are no facilities in operation for the sale of a travel ticket if—

(a)the passenger is not able to use any means of payment the passenger has available at the relevant time; and (b)the passenger would usually be able to purchase a travel ticket at the station in question at the relevant time of day using one of those means of payment.

Given that you can normally use a RTV against the value of a ticket, I would think that 4(b) applies to you, and hence you should, in theory be fine. I'm not 100% sure though, and don't think this can be used in stations where RTVs can't be exchanged (this can be non-obvious, as you can't always exchange a RTV from Company X in a station operated by Company Y). I would recommend verifying this with the relevant TOC (train operating company) though.

Is this affected by driver-only operation / penalty fare?

No

Also, if the ticket office is also closed at my destination and there was no guard, am I free to just leave the station if there is no-one around to try to purchase the ticket from? If I had alternative means to pay at the machine (e.g., card).

I think so - I can't recall any explicit documentation around this - they don't seem to have considered the case you described.

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  • "this can be non-obvious, as you generally can't exchange a RTV from Company X in a station operated by Company Y" I think in general they can be exchanged at any station. I've got a couple from GWR and Thameslink that say that they can be used at any national rail station
    – user137232
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 21:32
  • @user137232 Not always. I had a RTV from Southern that couldn't be exchanged at Clapham Junction, as that was managed by South Western Railway. I had to go to London Victoria for that.
    – Leaderboard
    Commented Jul 29, 2023 at 4:50
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    Your quote would lead me to believe the answer is no, rather than yes. Note that it says, “the passenger is not able to use any means of payment the passenger has available at the relevant time”. The question specifies that the traveller does have alternative means of payment, so (4)(a) is not fulfilled, and there are “facilities in operation for the sale of a travel ticket”.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 29, 2023 at 9:55
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    @JanusBahsJacquet I might be missing something, but my reading is that the passenger only has a RTV which they can't use at the station they are departing from.
    – Leaderboard
    Commented Jul 29, 2023 at 10:12
  • I’ll admit the punctuation makes it less clear, but I read the end of the question as being intended to mean, “Could I do all this if I also had alternative means to pay at the machine (e.g., card)”.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jul 29, 2023 at 10:57
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The Fares Advice and Policy and discussion board of Railforums is good at these kind of questions (and it looks like you've also asked there).

A previous similar question was asked and the answer from a long time member says:

You may buy on board with a Rail Travel Voucher if the wording on it is the standard one which states it may be used for travel from "any station", and there is no ticket office at the station where you start your journey, or the ticket office is shut.

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c2c states :

That said, you can use them at any staffed station; also on some services that operate with conductors (or those which do not operate penalty fares).

I don't know if this is nation-wide practice, but at least one company allows you to

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