EMR - invalid railcard

[econgirl]

Hi,
I bought a ticket in early Jan which was checked by a ticket inspector. I bought the ticket using the 16-25 railcard but it had expired a month ago. During that time period I had used it four times. I purchased a new railcard immediately as I hadn’t realised it expired (it was a tough month). The ticket inspector videoed my Trainline account (assuming she took my email) and said that they would be in touch for fare evasion.

She did not take my name, address or DOB which I assume is available on the account. I recently checked my account and noticed I have no address saved. Should I update my Trainline account with my address or do EMR have other means of contacting me?

 

[AlterEgo]

If EMR can't contact you and didn't bother to take your address then you will have no case to answer. Don't give it to them.

 

[z444z]

Should I update my Trainline account with my address

No. Luckily for you the revenue inspector didn’t do their job properly and you’re likely to get away with this.

 

[econgirl]

Thank you for the quick responses! I don’t want to rule it out but as my new railcard is linked to my Trainline account, can they access my details through it?

 

[RPI]

Like others have said, it's very sloppy of them, but, don't rule it out that they can't contact you, it's quite easy for them to find your information if they need to.

 

[z444z]

don’t rule it out that they can't contact you,

Agreed, keep an eye out for any correspondence via both post and email, but EMR will have made any action significantly more difficult for themselves by not taking your details.

I suspect you won’t hear anything from this. If you do, come back and we can help. If you don’t, it’d be helpful for us if you could update us at like the 3 and 7 month marks, if you’re up for doing so maybe set calendar reminders? But no worries if that’s too much to ask!

 

[RPI]

Agreed, keep an eye out for any correspondence via both post and email, but EMR will have made any action significantly more difficult for themselves by not taking your details.

I suspect you won’t hear anything from this. If you do, come back and we can help. If you don’t, it’d be helpful for us if you could update us at like the 3 and 7 month marks, if you’re up for doing so maybe set calendar reminders? But no worries if that’s too much to ask!

Reading between the lines, it sounds like this was a guard maybe trying to "Focus the mind" of the OP so that they maybe don't let their Railcard go out of date next time.

 

[econgirl]

Thank you for you the advice. I’ll keep you updated if I receive any correspondence.

I’ve not seen much threads discussing EMR. How are they as a TOC when it comes to fare evasion? I am naturally worried about the worst outcome.

 

[Snow1964]

There are there possibilities here, it might have been the guard, and the video might have not actually been recorded (if it was company phone then ok, but if it was personal phone then gets legally messy for data reasons), in which case it was more a frighten you with a warning approach to ensure have both valid ticket and railcard going forward.

The second option is will actually get to a revenue enforcement team, but without your details, they would have to do other work to track you down, so as others have said, probably will not go any further. If they can fill their work day with lots of other easier cases then good chance yours is in a too difficult pile, so gets dropped.

The third scenario (which I think is slim chance) is they do follow up and email you. If this happens (and it could be many weeks if they have to do bit of research), then come back for further advice.

 

[Kite159]

If it was the guard who was checking tickets, they might not do anything further seeing as you renewed the railcard and it wasn't expired for long.

Although if they scanned the original ticket, they can get the details from Trainline.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for the quick responses! I don’t want to rule it out but as my new railcard is linked to my Trainline account, can they access my details through it?

presumably they might e-mail you given that an e-mail address must be on your ticket buying account - so keep an eye out for e mail and spam over the coming 6 to 7 months. If you don't respond it will escalate automatically - or could do.
If you receive anything head back here for advice before you respond to it.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Jan 2026 ==

Thank you for you the advice. I’ll keep you updated if I receive any correspondence.

I’ve not seen much threads discussing EMR. How are they as a TOC when it comes to fare evasion? I am naturally worried about the worst outcome.

EMR are reasonable and if you persuade them this was a genuine oversight not having renewed the railcard then it's unlikely it would escalate beyond them seeking payment for the fares not paid correctly by mistake. But the key to getting that outcome (if they are pursuing you) is to receive anything they may send you and respond to it with help from here.

Your having immediately bought a new railcard is something you could say you did to act speedily to correct the error once it was drawn to your attention.