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I'm hoping to get some advice from those who may have been in a similar situation.
On the 12th of May 2026, I was issued a Travel Irregularity Report (TIR) for a short fare. Since then, I have not received any correspondence; neither by post nor by email and I'm now looking for some guidance on what to expect next.
I'm reasonably confident that South Western Railway (SWR) hold my correct postal address, however I'm less certain whether they have my email address on record, which may explain the lack of digital communication.
With that in mind, I have a couple of questions for the forum:
Timescales How long does it typically take to be contacted by the Revenue Protection or investigations team following the issuance of a TIR? Is there a general timeframe I should be aware of before the matter is escalated?
Contacting SWR to verify contact details Is it possible to proactively reach out to SWR to confirm they hold the correct email address? And perhaps more importantly, is it advisable to do so could making contact at this stage be seen as an acknowledgement or have any bearing on the process?
Any guidance or first-hand experience would be greatly appreciated.
SWR will take months rather than weeks to write to you, most likely. They always correspond with people about legal matters by letter, so I wouldn't reach out to them at this stage.
what would be a reasonable timeframe to wait for a letter, if I am trying to avoid any formal court procedures and ask for an opportunity of a settlement of my offence?
what would be a reasonable timeframe to wait for a letter, if I am trying to avoid any formal court procedures and ask for an opportunity of a settlement of my offence?
If you have not heard in 4 months come back here for some advice on options you may want to weigh up
If you look at other SWR threads where people have updated their thread to get advice at each step of the process you will get an idea of the timescales
For example
here is one from GTR I plotted a while back (so not SWR and thus timescales probably vary) but these are the various timeline points - so you get the idea:
Hi everyone, I’d really appreciate some input on a ticketing situation with Thameslink — including feedback on my draft reply to a Notice of Intention to Prosecute (NIP). Background: On 14 Sept 2025, I purchased an online ticket from Hatfield to Canary Wharf, but in reality I boarded the train...
www.railforums.co.uk
- the person (OP) was stopped on 14 September 2025
- The OP got the letter from GTR / Thameslink on 30 December 2025
- The OP replied to that on 5 January 2026
- The OP was offered an Out of Court settlement on 13 January 2026
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Timescales How long does it typically take to be contacted by the Revenue Protection or investigations team following the issuance of a TIR? Is there a general timeframe I should be aware of before the matter is escalated?
Contacting SWR to verify contact details Is it possible to proactively reach out to SWR to confirm they hold the correct email address? And perhaps more importantly, is it advisable to do so could making contact at this stage be seen as an acknowledgement or have any bearing on the process?
2) whether it is advisable is down to whether they might forget about you (their arm is weakened if they do not take action in under 6 months because the is the deadline in which to bring a criminal prosecution against someone for travel without a valid ticket. Obv you want to avoid that happening but for them it's significant leverage to make you pay an out of court settlement - after that it is only really likley that they could bring a civil case for the debt associated with unpaid fare(s) which is less money for them potentially - and no criminal record for you
But of you do want to contact them to find out what is happening you can e-mail them on: prosecutions@swrailway.com
I think they also have a Freepost hard copy mail address too (find some SWR threads here with letters uploaded and you will see the letterhead)
Personally I don't think I'd contact them until about 4 months in if you have not heard from them - unless there is some pressing reason for you to do so (eg you are about the leave the country for some period - but longer than eg a 2 week holiday)
If you do want to contact them ask and there is a basic template I've seen used before that you could copy which hopefully does not incriminate yourself
But if you got given a ref number I suspect it's probably pretty unlikely that they would forget about you.
The most important thing is to engage with them - so check for hard copy post, e-mail and spam. If you move address set up a Royal Mail post forwarding
Some more general advice often given on the forum is below - in case you have not seen it - might explain the process in general terms:
--------------------------
Firstly, you committed a criminal offence by travelling with an invalid ticket and railway companies are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.
Next, what happens is the railway company will write to you. The letter will go to the address that you gave them / on any of your ID they checked so you need to be able to access hard copy post at that address as they often send things that way (but also check e-mail and spam). It is extremely important that you reply, and you'll only have a limited time to do so (often 14 days from the date on their communication).
When you receive the letter post a redacted copy of it in this thread, along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. You'll find lots of example letters you can use in this section of the forum but the reply basically needs to mention:
- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident and will not do this again
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the railway company’s administrative costs in dealing with the matter
The railway will probably offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fare for the journey you made at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid ticket you purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. They will also audit your online ticket purchase history and if this shows you've purchased other tickets that were not valid (eg railcard discounted tickets when you did not have a valid railcard, or tickets for only part of the journey, or tickets bought after boarding the train you travelled on ) they will probably factor the cost of these journeys into the settlement offer. Depending on how many journeys you've made over the period concerned this could end up being expensive.
Settlements usually have to be paid in full within a few days of them being offered so if money is tight you might want to think about how you will raise the sum required at short notice.
Hello All, I am caught up in a similar situation where I did not realise my railcard had expired for about 3 months. I was issued a TIR by SWR. There is an email address in the TIR. I wanted to ask if it's worth while sending an email to that address now. Does that cut the back and forth I have to do looking at my letter box. Just want to get this sorted now and for all. I welcome your advise.
Hello All, I am caught up in a similar situation where I did not realise my railcard had expired for about 3 months. I was issued a TIR by SWR. There is an email address in the TIR. I wanted to ask if it's worth while sending an email to that address now. Does that cut the back and forth I have to do looking at my letter box. Just want to get this sorted now and for all. I welcome your advise.
No - not really. you can't short circuit their process as you are in a queue with hundreds of other people. Doing that just slows it down for everyone really. It's best not to contact them at this stage unless you are due to move address / leave the UK etc
Best you start your own thread on here then you can get advice on every step (there are things you can be doing whilst you wait to hear from them that will be of help to you in due course)
If you are still entitled to one get a new railcard now - that is then something you can say to them you did to sort thins out as soon as you became aware if the problem.
Hello All,
I have been checking my post regularly. SWR has NOT contacted me via physical letter yet. It has been almost 4 months. After checking in my Trainline app I realised that my account was related to an email that is not longer active. Do you think I should proactively make SWR aware of that, or still wait for physical letter through the post as I know they DO have my home address correctly.
Hello All,
I have been checking my post regularly. SWR has NOT contacted me via physical letter yet. It has been almost 4 months. After checking in my Trainline app I realised that my account was related to an email that is not longer active. Do you think I should proactively make SWR aware of that, or still wait for physical letter through the post as I know they DO have my home address correctly.
SWR do seem to make initial contact via hard copy letter from what we tend to see - but then permit continued dialogue by e-mail (you can see examples of their letters on the forum other SWR threads)
This is a copy of a post I made on the topic a while back (albeit with a different train company) - might help you weigh up the decision on if to contact them and if so what to say to SWR:
Assuming you have been checking post / e- mail / spam and not moved address (I note you have!)
The reason I often suggest that if people have not heard in 4 months to come back here for further advice is as follows - and hopefully @curly this will hep you decide what you want to do now (if anything).
As mentioned above they have 6 Months form the date of the incident to commence criminal legal action for ticket irregularity cases - including accidental ones potentially (ie prosecute you in the magistrates court). If they don't commence that process then they lose that opportunity - which is the main sanction they have over you - including getting you to pay a settlement out of court under threat of criminal prosecution. But
That needs to be set against the risk that they might do this at the last minute (send the case to court), which then commences the court process - which has a hard deadline set by the court (which you can't ask to be set back date wise) - that then makes it more difficult - because the time window is limited by the court deadlines for the case to be heard - to get an out of court settlement before the court issues a verdict (ie you are sentenced by the court)- which can make the chances of then negotiating a settlement much more pressured because of the courts time deadline. We still see people settling, but we also see the railway company just letting it go to court - which most people who come here for advice want to avoid. But
that needs to be set against the prospect of them forgetting about you and nothing happening at all....(However, I personally think that if someone's details were taken, and esp if a case ref number was issued by the inspector - the chances of being forgotten about are not that high)
So you have a choice between:
A) Do nothing and see what happens in 6 months (plus 2 or 3 weeks to see if you receive paperwork from the court in the post) Pros - they might forget about you and nothing happens within the 6 months + 3 weeks period
Cons - you might get a court summons at the last minute and that might be difficult to then negotiate a settlement out of court due to the limited time available to persuade the railway company to offer one before the deadline set by the court to deal with court paperwork - there may only be a couple of weeks time to do this)
or
B) write to them now to ask what they are doing about your case
Pros - they might respond and you can then follow the advice on the forum about how to best get an out of court settlement
- there is more time to then try to get an out of court settlement (possibly making 2 or 3 attempts if necessary) without a court deadline date ticking away
Cons - You remind them of your case when they might have forgotten about it so you can pretty much guarantee that you will probably then have to pay them the out of court settlement, or in a worst case scenario they might then decide to prosecute you, though this is not their usual procedure
Only you can decide what you want to do at this stage.
However, if you do want to write to them to find out what is happening, I suggest something very simple that simply asks them what they are doing about the matter from when you were questioned
for example - something along these lines:
SWR contact details (e-mail or post)
Prosecutions Department
Govia Thameslink Railway
Eastside Offices
Kings Cross Railway Station
London N1C 4AX.
Today's Date
Dear Sir/ Madam
I was stopped on x date at y location and questioned about the validity of my rail ticket.
I was given this ref number xxxxx [If you were given a ref number - otherwise delete this line]
I was advised by the member of staff who spoke to me that I would hear from you in due course. Since some time has gone by since that date I would be grateful if you could let me know if there is any further action related to this that I need to respond to.
Hello All,
I have been checking my post regularly. SWR has NOT contacted me via physical letter yet. It has been almost 4 months. After checking in my Trainline app I realised that my account was related to an email that is not longer active. Do you think I should proactively make SWR aware of that, or still wait for physical letter through the post as I know they DO have my home address correctly.
They have your home address and are more likely to contact you by letter initially. They have until November to take action against you and the three months so far is nothing unusual. Just be patient and wait.
We are aware of an issue with emails from the Forum to Microsoft-based email accounts (hotmail/outlook/live.com email addresses). This is being looked into currently, thanks for your patience meanwhile.
