Introduction In the
ticketing system of the
British rail network, a Permit to Travel provisionally allows a passenger to travel on a
train when they have not purchased a ticket in advance and the ticket office of the station they are travelling from is closed, without incurring a penalty fare.Since a large proportion of rail passengers travel without having their tickets checked at any point of their journey—particularly at off-peak times when stations are more likely to be unmanned—the obligation to possess a Permit to Travel allows the collection of at least some revenue from passengers who would otherwise travel for free.
See more at Wikipedia.org...