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I am writing to respond to your letter dated xx regarding the incident from Byfleet and New Haw to Surbiton.
I sincerely apologise for deciding to purchase a short fare ticket for my journey. This was an error of judgment on my part, resulting from a situation where money was short due to change in enployment. Now I had realised it is not fair on other passengers who do pay correctly when some people do not.
I had acknowledged now that it is forbidden to purchase a wrong ticket and I will take full responsibility for my actions.
Since the incident, I have ensured that I purchased valid tickets for all of my journeys, I can assure you that this will not happen again.
I would be grateful for the opportunity to resolve this matter without the need for court proceedings. I am prepared to pay the outstanding fare plus any administrative costs incurred.
Once again I sincerely apologise for the incident.
Yours sincerely,
My name.
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Looking much better I think
Minor point but I think 'had' needs changing to 'have' where you have used it in a couple of sentences.
Given no one will be in their office over weekend - if you are not up against their deadline to reply yet you could leave it 24 hours before sending it to see if anyone else has any suggestions
Looking much better I think
Minor point but I think 'had' needs changing to 'have' where you have used it in a couple of sentences.
Given no one will be in their office over weekend - if you are not up against their deadline to reply yet you could leave it 24 hours before sending it to see if anyone else has any suggestions
While you have every right to send it at the last possible moment, I would suggest aiming to send it a bit earlier - so Monday. That way, if something goes wrong (whether with your computer/phone, or with your day in general) you still have Tuesday to send it in.
I am writing to respond to your letter dated xx regarding the incident from Byfleet and New Haw to Surbiton.
I sincerely apologise for deciding to purchase a short fare ticket for my journey. This was an error of judgment on my part, resulting from a situation where money was short due to change in enployment. Now I had realised it is not fair on other passengers who do pay correctly when some people do not.
I sincerely apologise for my error of judgment in purchasing a short fare ticket for my journey. I now understand the importance of holding a valid ticket for travel and the impact fare evasion has on the operation of the railway network.
I had acknowledged now that it is forbidden to purchase a wrong ticket and I will take full responsibility for my actions.
Since the incident, I have reflected upon my actions and I have ensured that I purchased valid tickets for all of my journeys; I can assure you that this will not happen again.
I would be grateful for the opportunity to resolve this matter without the need for court proceedings. I am prepared to pay the outstanding fare plus any administrative costs incurred.
Once again I sincerely apologise for the incident.
Yours sincerely,
My name.
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If you are going to be pedantic, it helps if you can spell the word: but as far as I know we've never seen a request to settle rejected because the punctuation isn't quite right. And this is how it should be: look up 'Wednesbury reasonableness' which may not formally apply to railway companies but is good business practice for any organisation - considering all the relevant points and ignoring all the irrelevant ones.
Your view may differ, but I find we do best if we help posters with changes that will actually make a difference to whether their letters will have the desired effect.
If you are going to be pedantic, it helps if you can spell the word: but as far as I know we've never seen a request to settle rejected because the punctuation isn't quite right. And this is how it should be: look up 'Wednesbury reasonableness' which may not formally apply to railway companies but is good business practice for any organisation - considering all the relevant points and ignoring all the irrelevant ones.
Your view may differ, but I find we do best if we help posters with changes that will actually make a difference to whether their letters will have the desired effect.
This is a very valid view, and one which I agree with. In terms of spelling, no I'm not great at it! In this case I have made a typo as I intended to spell it with an A.
In any case this isn't relevant to the OP (my fault initially).
@jacey88 hopefully some of my other comments and the comments of others are of more use to you. Maybe post one more draft if you can and aim to send it shortly as discussed above.
I am writing to respond to your letter dated 28 July regarding the incident from Byfleet and New Haw to Surbiton.
I sincerely apologise for my error of judgement in purchasing a short fare ticket for my journey. Now I understand the importance of holding a valid ticket and the impact fare evasion has on the operation of the railway network. I have also realised thaf it is not fair on other passengers who do pay correctly when some people do not.
I have acknowledged now that it is forbidden to purchase a wrong ticket and I will take full responsibility for my actions.
Since the incident, I have reflected upon my action and have ensured that I purchased valid tickets for all of my journeys, I can assure you that this will not happen again.
I would be grateful for the opportunity to resolve this matter without the need for court proceedings. I am prepared to pay the outstanding fare plus any administrative costs incurred.
Yours sincerely,
My Name.
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I sincerely apologise for my error of judgment in purchasing a short fare ticket for my journey. I now understand the importance of holding a valid ticket for travel and the impact fare evasion has on the operation of the railway network.
Note (pedeantically) my replacement of the comma with a semi colon.
Please find my thoughts above. All optional suggestions of course.
Looking much better I think
Minor point but I think 'had' needs changing to 'have' where you have used it in a couple of sentences.
Given no one will be in their office over weekend - if you are not up against their deadline to reply yet you could leave it 24 hours before sending it to see if anyone else has any suggestions
Thank you very much for your help, im planning to send it tonight since last time it took them 2 days roughly to reply to my email for updating my correct address.
You shouldn't spell out what you were doing, it may encourage more digging into your ticket buying history. So, instead of "deciding to purchase a short fare ticket", say "failing to produce a valid ticket". Similarly, instead of "the incident from Byfleet and New Haw to Surbiton", just say "the incident on Saturday 6 June 2026".
You shouldn't spell out what you were doing, it may encourage more digging into your ticket buying history. So, instead of "deciding to purchase a short fare ticket", say "failing to produce a valid ticket". Similarly, instead of "the incident from Byfleet and New Haw to Surbiton", just say "the incident on Saturday 6 June 2026".
@jacey88 can I suggest creating a separate thread on the fares advice section of this site. It's very unclear from your posts exactly what tickets you have been purchasing and whether they are the most cost effective for your journeys.
@jacey88 can I suggest creating a separate thread on the fares advice section of this site. It's very unclear from your posts exactly what tickets you have been purchasing and whether they are the most cost effective for your journeys.
It would be helpful for us to see the letter, yes please. Make sure to redact personal details obviously. I can't recall a letter like this from SWR on the forum before.
I'm glad you managed to settle with them.
Sorry to steal @WesternLancer 's line but while I'm at it make sure to keep proof of payment for the long term (over a year).
I wonder if this is better and fairer way of laying out the options to the passenger enabling them to take a more informed view.
The problem I see is how to lay it out so that passengers don’t feel they have been compelled to take the out of court option rather than explaining further or going to court. Having said that how many of these would be a “slam dunk” conviction if it went to court.
I wonder if this is better and fairer way of laying out the options to the passenger enabling them to take a more informed view.
The problem I see is how to lay it out so that passengers don’t feel they have been compelled to take the out of court option rather than explaining further or going to court. Having said that how many of these would be a “slam dunk” conviction if it went to court.
But if they didn't list out the options, normal people will not actually know what they need to do. Although there are only 2 options available, and 3 where you ignore the letter.... And yes I don't think many will win going to the court so they usually are forced to choose to pay up the fine.
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But if they didn't list out the options, normal people will not actually know what they need to do. Although there are only 2 options available, and 3 where you ignore the letter.... And yes I don't think many will win going to the court so they usually are forced to choose to pay up the fine.
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Yes I'm glad about that too.
Thank you for your help@WesternLancerand all other people
Glad to hear this has progressed in the direction you need.
When you post keep proof of payment and all the correspondence and keep that long term ie over a year.
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.
