On Wednesday I caught a train to Petersfield (I have a Senior railcard so its cheap enough) then hiked south into Queen Elizabeth Country Park. It was a beautiful dat, lots of bright sunshine, the only drawback was it was rather windy. I stopped for coffee and cake at the visitor centre, which was very nice. I then hiked on to a small hamlet, Chalton, then up and over the downs to Rowlands Castle ande caught the train back to Portsmouth. I jumped on the train, got my debit card and senior Railcard out and waited for the conductor. He never came, I didn't see him or her anywhere!
After having a chat in the pub that evening about my 'interesting' trip, I was told that loads of people travel free in our train area. The explanation put forward is that it is most unlikely that between Havant to Portsmouth Harbour the conductor will makes an effort to collect fares. They tend to make the effort before Havant, but not after. I was told that if a passenger travels between Portsmouth Harbour to Havant most conductors will not bother to collect. This ruse evidently is used a lot when people are travelling to and from Portsmouth football ground on match days. I even learned another trick, a couple of the customers told me that if the trains final destination is Portsmouth and Southsea station and you want to avoid paying and the exit gates are not open, or are manned by staff, the 'trick' is to nip up to Platform One and catch the next train to Portsmouth Harbour. All you then have to do is get to off the train and just walk out of the station. There are no ticket barriers at Portsmouth Harbour.
Its amazing what people will tell others when they have had a few pints!