Questions I have about a recent fine I was issued.

[doortable]

Hi,

Context:
The other day I travelled from Marylebone to Leamington Spa via chiltern rail.
Upon arriving ticket inspectors were at the gate, and checked my ticket and railcard. My railcard has been out of date for about 10 months, and as such they reported me for further inspection and potential charges.
I have looked through past tickets and I have taken 14 journeys without a valid railcard.
I understand the severity of this situation (even though it’s my first offence) and will likely be looking at a £400-600 fine from my estimates.

Questions:
I provided my driving license, which included my address. I would like to confirm that the letter they send will definitely go to this address, and not the billing address from Trainline (where I purchased the ticket)

How long will it take to receive the first letter from them. I have seen some say 1-3 weeks, and others say 6 months. Or am I truly in the dark here

How should I structure my response, assuming they don’t offer immediate settlement, and threaten legal action.
Is the best way, apologise, say it won’t happen again, and pay settlement.

Will other train companies be chasing me up on this or is it limited to chiltern.

 

[z444z]

I have looked through past tickets and I have taken 14 journeys without a valid railcard.
I understand the severity of this situation (even though it’s my first offence) and will likely be looking at a £400-600 fine from my estimates.

To calculate an estimate you need to add up all the Anytime Single fares (a return journey will be calculated as 2x singles) and add a £150 admin fee on top. It could be a bit more or less than this.

I provided my driving license, which included my address. I would like to confirm that the letter they send will definitely go to this address, and not the billing address from Trainline (where I purchased the ticket)

Almost certainly yes.

How long will it take to receive the first letter from them. I have seen some say 1-3 weeks, and others say 6 months. Or am I truly in the dark here

It really could be anywhere in that range, but I’ll have a look through recent Chiltern cases (if there are any) and see how long they’ve taken.

How should I structure my response, assuming they don’t offer immediate settlement, and threaten legal action. Is the best way, apologise, say it won’t happen again, and pay settlement.

Pretty much, although if they haven’t offered a settlement you’ll need to ask if they’d be so kind as to offer you one, you can’t just pay it if they haven’t offered it.

Will other train companies be chasing me up on this or is it limited to chiltern.

Chiltern will contact you but will likely be asking for fares for all journeys regardless of the train company that you travelled on.

 

[doortable]

Thank you so much!!
Really appreciate the timely response.

 

[z444z]

The last Chiltern case we saw massively ran out of time to prosecute. Chiltern have apparently paused prosecutions while they review things following a recent ruling that tons of their (and other companies) prosecutions were unlawful.

This doesn’t mean you’ll get so lucky, 6 months is still a while, but it means that 1. there’s definitely a chance that they’ll run out of time which’d save you some money and 2. if they do get in touch it really could be at any point, there is no way to know!

 

[Trainman40083]

Is your driving licence address and billing address on Trainline different, then?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

My railcard has been out of date for about 10 months, and as such they reported me for further inspection and potential charges.
I have looked through past tickets and I have taken 14 journeys without a valid railcard.
I understand the severity of this situation (even though it’s my first offence) and will likely be looking at a £400-600 fine from my estimates.

Welcome to the forum. "FIrst offence", or just the first time you've been stopped? The previous occasions you've travelled using railcard discounted tickets, but without holding a corresponding, in date, valid railcard, meant you didn't have a valid ticket for any of these previous occasions. BTW, how exactly did you estimate that you might have to stump up a sum of £400-£600 to the train company? (N.B. This isn't a fine, as such, although it might seem like that; as only courts impose fines and presumably you want to avoid a conviction / court imposed fine!)

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi,

Context:
The other day I travelled from Marylebone to Leamington Spa via chiltern rail.
Upon arriving ticket inspectors were at the gate, and checked my ticket and railcard. My railcard has been out of date for about 10 months, and as such they reported me for further inspection and potential charges.
I have looked through past tickets and I have taken 14 journeys without a valid railcard.
I understand the severity of this situation (even though it’s my first offence) and will likely be looking at a £400-600 fine from my estimates.

Questions:
I provided my driving license, which included my address. I would like to confirm that the letter they send will definitely go to this address, and not the billing address from Trainline (where I purchased the ticket)

How long will it take to receive the first letter from them. I have seen some say 1-3 weeks, and others say 6 months. Or am I truly in the dark here

How should I structure my response, assuming they don’t offer immediate settlement, and threaten legal action.
Is the best way, apologise, say it won’t happen again, and pay settlement.

Will other train companies be chasing me up on this or is it limited to chiltern.

I think it's quite tricky to know how long it will take Chiltern to contact you because of the issues mentioned by others about how they are (or are not) progressing cases at the moment.

All you can really do is to keep an eye on your post, your e-mail and also spam - and do that for at least 6 to 8 months really to see what happens. If you get anything then head back here for advice on how best to respond to it.

If it concerns you in due course you could write to Chiltern after some time - but it's not really in your interests to remind them as you will appreciate.

 

[doortable]

Welcome to the forum. "FIrst offence", or just the first time you've been stopped? The previous occasions you've travelled using railcard discounted tickets, but without holding a corresponding, in date, valid railcard, meant you didn't have a valid ticket for any of these previous occasions. BTW, how exactly did you estimate that you might have to stump up a sum of £400-£600 to the train company? (N.B. This isn't a fine, as such, although it might seem like that; as only courts impose fines and presumably you want to avoid a conviction / court imposed fine!)

First time I’ve been stopped.
I estimate £400-600 because I travelled 14 times after it expired, £20-30 per ticket (roughly) + £150 for the added penalty.

I’m very much hoping to avoid any further legal action, and request a settlement.
Again I understand this is largely out of my control, but I’m staying hopeful.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2026 ==

Is your driving licence address and billing address on Trainline different, then?

Yes, and they did not take note of my email, so I’m relying solely on the letter.

 

[Trainman40083]

First time I’ve been stopped.
I estimate £400-600 because I travelled 14 times after it expired, £20-30 per ticket (roughly) + £150 for the added penalty.

I’m very much hoping to avoid any further legal action, and request a settlement.
Again I understand this is largely out of my control, but I’m staying hopeful.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 5 Feb 2026 ==


Yes, and they did not take note of my email, so I’m relying solely on the letter.

Hope your driving licence address is up to date.

 

[Western Gaffer]

Is your driving licence address and billing address on Trainline different, then?

Yes, and they did not take note of my email, so I’m relying solely on the letter.

Do you have access to (mail at) both addresses or is one of them completely out of date?

 

[Elecman]

Your 14 journeys( if return journeys will be charged as 28 Single fares with no allowance for what you have already paid) with the nominal £150 admin charge on top.

 

[doortable]

Do you have access to (mail at) both addresses or is one of them completely out of date?

One is out of date
But it feels unlikely they would send it to my Trainline billing address?
Would anyone recommend sending them a message preemptively, or is this a bad idea?
I could always travel to the old address and ask any mail to be redirected?

 

[WesternLancer]

One is out of date
But it feels unlikely they would send it to my Trainline billing address?
Would anyone recommend sending them a message preemptively, or is this a bad idea?
I could always travel to the old address and ask any mail to be redirected?

Is an official Royal Mail postal redirection an option? See the Royal Mail website for how this works and charges.

 

[Acathater]

Correct the address on the Trainline account