A HAMPSHIRE couple were fined more than £100 – for getting off a too train early.

Emma Clark and her fiancé Davyd Winter-Bates were travelling back from London to Southampton when they decided to hop off two stops earlier at Eastleigh.

When they handed over their tickets they were shocked to be told they had breached railway rules and were ordered to pay a fine of £114 – double the price of two standard fares.

Davyd, who was celebrating his 25th birthday in London, paid his £57 penalty on the spot, but Emma, 22, refused to pay up and is challenging the fine.

The couple had bought discounted single tickets for £6 each on a website before setting off on their weekend theatre trip and had planned to travel to Southampton Central station.

But while they were on the train on Sunday, the pair decided to get off a little earlier to have lunch with friends in Eastleigh.

It was as they were leaving the station in Eastleigh that a ticket collector spotted their early exit and told them they should have stayed on until their final destination.

University art student Emma, from Bishopstoke, said: “It is utter madness. I could understand being fined if I had stayed on the train two stops beyond my destination.”

Her fiancé Davyd added: “It’s lousy.”

Rail users’ campaign group Passenger Focus criticised rail companies for confusing passengers and told the Daily Echo that action needed to be taken to simplify the ticketing system.

Rail director Ashwin Kumar said: “Most tickets allow you to end your journey early so this is a another example of how confusing the fares system can be.

“The industry needs to do much more to ensure passengers are aware of any restrictions on their train ticket.”

A South West Trains spokesman said: "We believe in treating all of our customers fairly. All tickets on the UK rail network have specific terms and conditions and customers should check that they are purchasing the right ticket for their journey. It is a specific condition of all advance purchase tickets - not just megatrain.com or South West Trains - that leaving the train at an intermediate station is not permitted.

"It is also important to understand that the cost of a rail ticket is not solely based on distance travelled. It is based on the level of flexibility purchased by the customer and factors such as the popularity of the route, the time of travel during the day and when the ticket was booked in relation to the date of travel.

"In this case, the customers bought a discount ticket on the megatrain.com website that did not allow them to travel from London to Eastleigh. The customers would have known this as the website they used to book the ticket does not offer Eastleigh as a destination. Unfortunately, by breaking the conditions of travel, this meant they had an additional charge to pay. This would have been the case in a similar situation anywhere on the UK rail network. It would have been unfair on other passengers travelling on the same train who paid more for the correct ticket if the customers in this case were not asked to pay that charge.