Recent content by Alex C.

I don't think we disagree on the facts here - the notice records data that's plainly wrong (Tamworth, "issued on train", "no ticket"). WMT have a case to answer on that, and they should correct what they're holding. We don't know whether it was a keying error, a system quirk or something worse...

The OP presented a ticket for the previous day, which may or may not be valid depending on the circumstances - the NRCoT doesn't provide a clear-cut test here, so it will be judged on the facts - I do think that ambiguity should be resolved in the favour of the OP. I agree that if they had...

I disagree - the penalty fare was issued at the gateline, at a station that is served by operators who have penalty fare schemes. If saying you had travelled on CrossCountry were enough to make the suspicion unreasonable, everyone could deploy that argument as they travelled through. The TOC is...

I fully agree with the rest of your post but I am not persuaded by this - the train company have a legitimate interest in detecting and preventing fraudulent travel and require personal details to investigate individual incidents. The fact it later transpires that the penalty fare was issued...

I thought I'd put this in but must have forgotten it - we've seen magistrates ignoring that rule (and the ORR called it out in their review of prosecutions, section 5.25). I agree - a prosecution would be unlawful but given the Chief Magistrate has provided an opinion on the matter I would not...

The only way to guarantee that there will be no prosecution at the end of this is to pay the penalty. Unfortunately, I think that even if you were to be able to overturn the penalty, they could still prosecute given the evidence you've provided that you were unable to present a valid ticket at...

There are plenty of people in this situation, the only thing you can do at present is wait for them to get in touch - SWR are pragmatic about settlements though so if you engage with them, you'll almost certainly be able to avoid any prosecution. Typically, you'd expect to pay an admin fee of...

There is a forgotten railcard policy, if you show them the railcard (that was bought before the check) then that will be the end of it!

Last week I travelled into London on Tuesday and Thursday (from Fratton). Both days we were diverted via Basingstoke, and both days we were further delayed by failed rolling stock on the SWML. I actually can't remember the last time day I was able to get into London and back without any delays.

There is a benefit of this being a civil matter rather than a criminal one - if it does go to court you avoid a criminal record altogether, and the economics work in your favour - on the small claims track each side pays their own legal costs win or lose, so they could only recover their court...

I actually think a lot of guards will show compassion in these situations. I recently got to the station for my regular commuting train and whilst i can't remember the exact times, two trains depart within 5 minutes to the same destination but via different routes. I got there with 2 minutes to...

I may be missing something here but without auto renewal on railcards how does this prevent the forgotten expiry issue? I have a railcard valid until 25 April 2026 I book a ticket now for 26 April 2026 with the discount Presumably the retailer will see it is current, they can only presume I am...

Trainline is probably where this came from, for at least 6 months, when visiting their website on Desktop, they have a pre-ticked checkbox which opens booking.com in the same way as posted in this thread.

I worked for a TOC in a position where I was dealing with complaints about staff. We were very careful to never pass personal details on internally but would ensure complaints about employees were investigated (and I would often see the follow up comments from managers who had done...

Sorry what I mean is the overall cost would increase - single platform which makes claiming easier means reduces operating costs but increase delay repay expenditure.