Caught without Railcard - completely screwed!

[BethSB2]

Good morning all!

I have been following these forums for the last three months as I was caught travelling without a Railcard back in August (my own fault, lesson severely learnt) and have found people's advice on similar matters to be incredibly helpful - so I thought it was time I made my own post with specific details. Any advice is hugely appreciated!

I travelled a short journey to a festival on GWR at the end of August and bought a Railcard ticket (it cost be ~£5 at Railcard price so would've been ~£8 full price). At the destination station, there were about 20 GWR staff members who were filtering the exit so that they could check tickets. They stopped me and asked for my Railcard which I couldn't present, they then took my details, informing me this was an official prosecution and that I would receive a letter in the post. I have been stressing non-stop about this since as I have read forums where people have received extra charges based off their Trainline ticket history - for me this would be a nightmare. I have used Trainline to buy tickets not only for myself but for my partner and I also do not remember when I last had a Railcard. How far back can they fine me for? I did have a Railcard at uni but I have no evidence of this since my uni email is inactive now.

How long can I expect to wait and how bad is my situation? I have considered contacting GWR myself as I am scared that they have sent a letter and it has been lost. I have sometimes hoped that they didn't bother looking into the case further since the initial fare was so low, but I know this is wishful thinking.

If anyone can offer any advice of guidance, it would really help me feeling less anxious about this 24/7

Also, as I said, I have learnt my lesson the hard way here and will not be getting myself in this situation again.

TIA!

 

[WesternLancer]

Good morning all!

I have been following these forums for the last three months as I was caught travelling without a Railcard back in August (my own fault, lesson severely learnt) and have found people's advice on similar matters to be incredibly helpful - so I thought it was time I made my own post with specific details. Any advice is hugely appreciated!

I travelled a short journey to a festival on GWR at the end of August and bought a Railcard ticket (it cost be ~£5 at Railcard price so would've been ~£8 full price). At the destination station, there were about 20 GWR staff members who were filtering the exit so that they could check tickets. They stopped me and asked for my Railcard which I couldn't present, they then took my details, informing me this was an official prosecution and that I would receive a letter in the post. I have been stressing non-stop about this since as I have read forums where people have received extra charges based off their Trainline ticket history - for me this would be a nightmare. I have used Trainline to buy tickets not only for myself but for my partner and I also do not remember when I last had a Railcard. How far back can they fine me for? I did have a Railcard at uni but I have no evidence of this since my uni email is inactive now.

How long can I expect to wait and how bad is my situation? I have considered contacting GWR myself as I am scared that they have sent a letter and it has been lost. I have sometimes hoped that they didn't bother looking into the case further since the initial fare was so low, but I know this is wishful thinking.

If anyone can offer any advice of guidance, it would really help me feeling less anxious about this 24/7

Also, as I said, I have learnt my lesson the hard way here and will not be getting myself in this situation again.

TIA!

Hi and welcome

Your situation is not as bad as some on this forum, so you aren't totally screwed. But what you did is not good.

To answer your questions

- I would think you might expect to hear from GWR maybe within 8 weeks of the incident - but they have longer than this - sounds like this has been longer since you were stopped? But they may have a backlog at the moment

- Did you give them a correct postal address and are you still at that address? This is the important thing - it's VITAL you get their letter and respond to it (also check your e-mail, your spam and any e-mail account linked to your ticket buying site(s).

- How long ago do you roughly think you had a Railcard / it expired?

- If you are entitled to one now get one ASAP - something you can say you have done to 'put things right' when you are responding to them to seek not being prosecuted

- they can go back through your ticket records probably for as long as those records exist I suspect - certainly years

- if possible stop buying tickets for other people like your partner - get them to set up their own account - not a big thing but makes things less complicated going forwards

- study GWR's revenue protection policy pdf document for what to expect:

https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/revenue-protection-policy/GWR-Revenue-Protection-Policy-January-2023-v2.pdf

- get your ticket buying history from the site you use and list out all the tickets bought with Railcard discounts - try to then go through that list and work out which ones might be your partner's which ones might be from when you actually had a Railcard - and work out what is left where you may have applied a discount with a railcard that you don't have

- then work out the full Anytime Single Fare for those trips as this might be what you need to pay. Then start saving that money up so you can access it quickly if they demand payment as an out of court settlement, if you can persuade them to offer you one - you will have seen other threads on how to do that if you have been studying the forum

Hope that advice helps.

 

[BethSB2]

Thank you for responding and for your advice, I really appreciate it. Do you/anyone know if there is there a certain amount of time that they would need to contact me within?

 

[jfollows]

Thank you for responding and for your advice, I really appreciate it. Do you/anyone know if there is there a certain amount of time that they would need to contact me within?

If they’re going to prosecute you, which they generally won’t if you engage with them, but it’s their backstop policy, they have to initiate the prosecution within six months of the event, so consider this as a worst case. They’re going to write to you sooner than this.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for responding and for your advice, I really appreciate it. Do you/anyone know if there is there a certain amount of time that they would need to contact me within?

just make sure you can access post at the address you gave for 6 to 8 months from the date you were stopped (or have post redirected by Royal Mail)

 

[Belperpete]

Your post suggests that you have been routinely buying Railcard discounted tickets not just for yourself but for your partner for a prolonged time, without a Railcard. If this is the case, then they may be treating this more seriously than someone who has made a one-off mistake, and taking time to investigate it.

As the previous poster noted, if your partner doesn't have a Railcard, then he/she is accountable for those occasions where he/she travelled using the discounted tickets you bought, and so you could refuse to pay for those instances. However, they are unlikely to just take your word that it wasn't you - can you prove that it was your partner and not you who used those tickets? And I would be very careful about taking that line, because of a) dropping your partner in it, and b) potentially opening yourself up to the offence of facilitating ticket fraud by another.

They are unlikely to take your word, let alone guess, of when your last Railcard expired. Try and get some evidence of when you last held a Railcard. If you bought it online, can you access the online Railcard account? Do you have a bank record of payment for a Railcard?

And if they are prepared to accept an out of court settlement, be prepared to have to pay a fairly substantial administrative fee, on top of the ticket costs mentioned in #2.