letter received in post, still waiting to hear back after 7 months

[abcde12345678]

basically i had a santander railcard that they give out to university students for 3/4 years.

i didn’t realise my had expired (since i never check the card and just bring it out to show the officers on the train and they never noticed the date expiry too). i had used the trainline app to buy tickets and that was around 4 times after my railcard expired.

got a letter because they noticed the expired (it did get checked on this journey too but again the officer like i, must have just went blind on the expiry section)

anyways i responded to this letter when i received it 7 months ago and haven’t had a response yet via email which their automated reply states 90 working days till we get a response. the staff around the station i be at regular, who work for this company said to email again and get it touch, their standard customer service team said the revenue team is currently reviewing all outstanding cases based on advice received from the Department for Transport regarding prosecutions in the rail industry so it will take a while and not to email again since it’ll take the case more lower in their files.

however has anyone had a situation like this before in England? i don’t want it to go to court or get prosecuted??, i genuinely forgot that the railcard had an expiry date since i was still in education, and my trainline app is defaulted with the 16-25 railcard, i went and got a new one after the man said it expired and it’s a digital one.

i did say in the email i’ll happily pay what my journey prices should have been and any other fees/fines.

just want to know what usually happens in these situations.

 

[z444z]

What date were you stopped and your details taken?

 

[jfollows]

Any likely prosecution has to be “laid before” the court within six months of the alleged event. So many avenues towards prosecution are likely closed now. However there may be other checks you need to make to be sure. Assuming your address has not changed and they can still contact you at it, for example. That a prosecution has not taken place without your knowing about it.

 

[abcde12345678]

What date were you stopped and your details taken?

the staff took a pic of my license so all the standard personal details were taken and somehow my trainline details/account maybe? i’m not sure and it was around april time

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Dec 2025 ==

Any likely prosecution has to be “laid before” the court within six months of the alleged event. So many avenues towards prosecution are likely closed now. However there may be other checks you need to make to be sure. Assuming your address has not changed and they can still contact you at it, for example. That a prosecution has not taken place without your knowing about it.

what other checks could there be/should i check.

my address hasn’t changed and they have my email address too.

 

[jfollows]

In the absence of anything else you can ask Chiltern what is going on. They may well try and get money from you if you do, but you need to understand that you can not be prosecuted for the majority of the offences they refer to, and they will not prosecute you for fraud (which does not have the same time limit) because this would require them to prove you intended to defraud them, rather than just making the mistake you have explained here.

 

[abcde12345678]

In the absence of anything else you can ask Chiltern what is going on. They may well try and get money from you if you do, but you need to understand that you can not be prosecuted for the majority of the offences they refer to, and they will not prosecute you for fraud (which does not have the same time limit) because this would require them to prove you intended to defraud them, rather than just making the mistake you have explained here.

how do i even get hold of them? i’ve asked the general customer service to give a slight info on what usually happens (based on previous cases similar) and they just say to wait till i hear back from the fraud team and not to keep emailing because it’ll put my case to the back end of the cases (i’ve only emailed 2 times after my first email to them after receiving the letter, so second email was near end of august and then another mid november)

 

[WesternLancer]

how do i even get hold of them? i’ve asked the general customer service to give a slight info on what usually happens (based on previous cases similar) and they just say to wait till i hear back from the fraud team and not to keep emailing because it’ll put my case to the back end of the cases (i’ve only emailed 2 times after my first email to them after receiving the letter, so second email was near end of august and then another mid november)

Well only the e mail and postal address on the letter you uploaded. If that isn’t resulting in a meaningful response not sure what else to do.

Assuming you are checking your spam folder.

You could write hard copy post and send tracked postage, keeping. Poppies of everything and the postage tracking proof of delivery in case things escalated so you could prove you did your best to communicate with them. But not sure it’s necessarily in your interests to keep chasing them.

 

[jumble]

You may want to read post 7 on

Explaining 6 months expiration?

Hello, I have seen a number of posts detailing that the train company has a maximum of 6 months if they intend to prosecute. Please can someone explain what this means and where this comes from? The offence is over 7 months ago and email communication response to the letter with the train...

www.railforums.co.uk

"I'm aware that almost all Chiltern cases are broadly on hold at the moment, due to issues raised across the industry regarding the use of lay prosecutors (effectively people without formal legal qualifications) to bring cases.

It's very unlikely you will be prosecuted, but we have seen TOCs like GWR persue the costs via civil courts and I would not be surprised if that will also happen with Chiltern."

 

[furlong]

Just wait. Things still seem to be on pause at Chiltern.