hi there lovely people, I wonder if you can help / offer me some advice.
I was travelling on the cross country train yesterday from Macclesfield to Manchester and wasnt paying attention as I was in a heated text exchange. Anyway, I genuinely forgot to purchase a ticket. I saw the ticket guy and quickly purchased one, but obviously too late. He scanned it, said that I just bought it ( fair ), and i was on the wrong train line. I thought I got an off peak return which you can use on Cross country AND Avanti, a genuine mistake - but panicking I didn't notice, my fault. He wasn't happy, and tried to make me buy a new ticket. We kinda argued for a few seconds and he shouted the law at me, its illegal, by this point, I was so fed up and having a bad day, I walked off from him and got off the train as it was quite close to Manchester. I am worried he is going to track me down still, is this possible after he scanned my ticket, which has my Railcard information on etc? I know I shouldnt have ran off, emotions got the better of me. I actually went back to the station about 20 minutes later to find him and say sorry and pay, but I couldn't find him. I spoke to other members of staff but they said nothing can be done now as I left. Any advice would be great, and if he will likely open an investigation using my Trainline app / Railcard. Thanks!!
Welcome
so the member of staff on the train won't be responsible for investigating you. He would pass the information to the back office 'Revenue Protection' team who would do that. They might write to you directly, or they might pass it over to an external contractor that Cross Country Trains use for fares enforcement activity called ITAL / IRCAS for them to follow up.
Or he may simply do nothing and you will never hear from them.
It might take some time (weeks or even months) for them to contact you, and if you ignore that it would be likely to escalate to court prosecution automatically - this is something you need to avoid as it would result in a court fine, costs, and a criminal record that you would have to declare on things like job applications for a period of time.
So it is vital that you keep an eye out for hard copy post and e-mail and check spam for at least the next 7 months. If you move address in this time period you need to make arrangements to access your post or get it forwarded (see Royal Mail postal redirection web pages)
If you did not tell the ticket inspector your name and address, but he did scan your digital ticket - then they can get the information they need to contact you (eg your e-mail address and/or the postal address linked to the bank account you bought your ticket from) in order to track you down.
If the Inspector opted not to bother doing anything because you had some sort of ticket then you won't hear more about this - but it sounds as if they took the view the ticket you bought was not valid, you had a heated debate and walked off (so probably failed the 'attitude test' even if you did try to go back to apologise later), so the Inspector might have passed your details on for investigation.
You can not know for certain.
If you hear from them then head back here on how best to respond to that letter or e-mail.
Meanwhile the general advice often given on here might be of help to you to understand how things work generally with travel using tickets not deemed to be valid - here is a copy of that:
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.
NOTE : A Macclesfield to Manchester Anytime Single is £13.10 - so that is what they might charge you for the fare, but it will be the 'admin fee' that will significantly increase any sum they may demand from you
thanks youu