Evidence of purchasing railcards

[befr]

Hello, I am in the process of responding to a pre court settlement with gwr. They have asked me to send any relevant evidence to their revenue recovery team. Because I bought my 16-25 railcards through trainline I cant access the ones from more than two years ago, and I don’t have the emails confirming my purchase of the railcards anymore. But I have been searching my banking history and have found the purchases that match up with all the times I bought my railcards. Would these count as sufficient evidence?

 

[transportphoto]

Possibly. It may also be worth reaching out to Trainline to see if they can share your railcard purchase history?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I think it's been suggested that the Trainline website gives more detail for longer than the app, so if you haven't already tried that it might be worth a look.

Otherwise, the dates and amounts of transactions are consistent with buying railcards so GWR may believe you. But that will show you didn't always have a railcard, so check carefully if any of the disputed journeys are for when you didn't have a railcard: there's no point in arguing against your own evidence!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hello, I am in the process of responding to a pre court settlement with gwr. They have asked me to send any relevant evidence to their revenue recovery team. Because I bought my 16-25 railcards through trainline I cant access the ones from more than two years ago, and I don’t have the emails confirming my purchase of the railcards anymore. But I have been searching my banking history and have found the purchases that match up with all the times I bought my railcards. Would these count as sufficient evidence?

By 'pre court settlement' do you mean they are pursuing you in the civic civil court for historic fare issues over 6 months ago (ie as opposed to a case where criminal court prosecution has been threatened for travel without a valid ticket that they have caught you doing in the last 6 months) ?

There is a significant difference between the two scenarios if it got to court AIUI relating to 'balance of probabilities' evidence - and thus occurs to me this may be pertinent to what you can supply to them now.

If the former there are a small number of other threads on here that relate tot hat where people were advised on how best to negotiate the sum demanded downwards - which you may want to read through (can probably provide the thread links for you), or people may be able to give you more advice if you share the background to the situation you are in.
Or indeed if the latter people may also be able to give you specific advice should you wish to obtain that.

Basically you would need to share more background and copies of paperwork here (with all your personal details and case ref numbers blanked out) if you would like people to try and advise in more detail on things.

 

[befr]

By 'pre court settlement' do you mean they are pursuing you in the civic court for historic fare issues over 6 months ago (ie as opposed to a case where criminal court prosecution has been threatened for travel without a valid ticket that they have caught you doing in the last 6 months) ?

There is a significant difference between the two scenarios if it got to court AIUI relating to 'balance of probabilities' evidence - and thus occurs to me this may be pertinent to what you can supply to them now.

If the former there are a small number of other threads on here that relate tot hat where people were advised on how best to negotiate the sum demanded downwards - which you may want to read through (can probably provide the thread links for you), or people may be able to give you more advice if you share the background to the situation you are in.
Or indeed if the latter people may also be able to give you specific advice should you wish to obtain that.

Basically you would need to share more background and copies of paperwork here (with all your personal details and case ref numbers blanked out) if you would like people to try and advise in more detail on things.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Apr 2026 ==

It is the first letter thats been sent to me after speaking with a revenue officer in june of 2024. I know that I have some money to pay, but I’m think they have included some travel dates when I did have a railcard

 

[WesternLancer]

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 9 Apr 2026 ==

It is the first letter thats been sent to me after speaking with a revenue officer in june of 2024. I know that I have some money to pay, but I’m think they have included some travel dates when I did have a railcard

Thanks - so AIUI if they did not commence criminal prosecution proceedings against you (which they would have been entitled to do if you were spoken to by an inspector who found you did not have a valid ticket) within 6 months of the date you were stopped and questioned (so about December 2024) - they can not do that now.

By failing to act promptly they have lost the chance to bring such a prosecution, presumably by not dedicating enough staff resources to bringing such cases against fare evaders or people who have made ticketing mistakes in the 6 month time window permitted for this sort of offence.

However, we do know that some train companies (esp GWR) have then resorted to taking civil action - or threatening it - we have not actually had people come here for help who have let it go as far as actually being taken to the civil court but it's reasonable to assume some have - to seek to obtain historic debts for unpaid fares going back longer (the time limit is I think 6 years for that) - but it's not a criminal court case, does not come with a criminal record etc. It is in order to reclaim the sum in fares they believe they are owed as a result of the evasion / travel without the correct fare being paid

So we have had a few cases on here where armed with that knowledge and with the help from people on the forum with relevant expertise, people have pushed back on the sums demanded (often high price Anytime Fares) and I think secured agreements to pay lower prices 'Off peak' Fares - if they actually travelled off peak - instead.

Of course unless you share more info we don't know what they are asking from you at thus point, or how many times you did not pay the correct fare, or how many times they have discovered that by trawling your ticket buying history - do not feel obliged to share that inf at this stage but you might want to do so if you want help considering that option.

A case rathe like this that you could look over is this one - it's quite lengthy but you may find it worth a read - there will be key posts at various stages where the person who raised it was advised what course of action they might take.

Of course you would need to decide if you are 'up for' the work involved in challenging them about what they are asking, making courier offers etc etc - all of which I think can be found in that thread

But you might find it helpful to have a read - amongst other very experienced people on here I can see that @Watershed gave detailed advice, as did others

Have a look

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/settlement-offer-over-a-year-after-the-incident.293087/

Whatever you decide to do in terms of our response to what they are currently asking, you might wish to share your draft response to their latest request to you hear in case it might help for people to proof read it for you?

Obviously totally up to you.

On your original question, I would think sending them some form of bank evidence of payments that match a Railcard purchase charge is better than not being able to send anything at all - and of course you can show it is part of a pattern demonstrated later by Trainline purchase evidence that you have accessed.

From what we see they will 'play fair' and reduce sums requested where people can supply such evidence so you may simply wish to do that, see what sums they then request, and if you feel you owe it, pay them to conclude the matter and move on. If so it is probably a good idea to make sure you obtain some 'written guarantee' from GWR at the end of things that the matter is concluded and neither they or any other train company will subsequently pursue you further.

Only posting this so you can make an informed decision on what you wish to do.