Fined on cross country train but no action?

[honey]

Hi so i'm really worried about a train fine i got issued 2 months ago on the cross country train service and the woman said i should get a letter with in 2-4 weeks. (i'm a student and my railcard was out of date ) but i have since not received any letter and have tried calling the customer service multiple times but they just never pick up?? I'm panicking here thinking my fines going up and up but i literally don't know what to do.


and yes i gave her all my correct details and right address etc.


any advice or what i should do??

 

[I hate tfl]

Was it a inspector in plain cloths ?

 

[skyhigh]

Was it a inspector in plain cloths ?

Why does it matter?

 

[honey]

Was it an inspector in plain cloths ?

she was wearing smart casual. i cant fully remember every detail of the outfit or if it was uniform, or if she had a badge/lanyard etc

 

[signed]

They have 6 months to bring any offense to court, you can and should just wait, especially if you are certain your data is correct

From @Hadders, the expert in that kind of matter :

There is nothing to be gained by contacting the train company ahead of receiving their letter.

They are unlikely to be able to match it up with your case - they deal with hundreds of cases at any one time, and they might not have received the report from the inspector yet.
You don't know what the train company are going to say in their letter and so there is a risk that you say something that incriminates yourself.

When the letter comes post a copy of it in this thread (with personal details redacted) along with your draft reply and forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi so i'm really worried about a train fine i got issued 2 months ago on the cross country train service and the woman said i should get a letter with in 2-4 weeks. (i'm a student and my railcard was out of date ) but i have since not received any letter and have tried calling the customer service multiple times but they just never pick up?? I'm panicking here thinking my fines going up and up but i literally don't know what to do.


and yes i gave her all my correct details and right address etc.


any advice or what i should do??

If you are a student be sure that you can access your post over the coming weeks and months and respond to it quickly. If you gave them a term time address you need to have a plan to deal with this as it will most likely be hard copy post (eg a Royal Mail redirection)

If you do not respond to what they send it will almost certainly escalate to court and a good chance you will be convicted of an offence without you knowing it - that will take a lot of time and hassle and probably money to untangle.

Even if you can get through to customer services that will probably be a waste of time - the matter will be in the hands of their Revenue Enforcement team or their contractors

 

[honey]

If you are a student be sure that you can access your post over the coming weeks and months and respond to it quickly. If you gave them a term time address you need to have a plan to deal with this as it will most likely be hard copy post (eg a Royal Mail redirection)

If you do not respond to what they send it will almost certainly escalate to court and a good chance you will be convicted of an offence without you knowing it - that will take a lot of time and hassle and probably money to untangle.

Even if you can get through to customer services that will probably be a waste of time - the matter will be in the hands of their Revenue Enforcement team or their contractors

thanks for replying. and i didn’t give a term time address as i knew i’d be back home for summer the following month.

i’m prepared to respond it’s just really frustrating when i’m constantly checking the mail and there’s nothing!! my worst nightmare would be i did receive a letter and it somehow has been accidentally thrown away or if not, they currently believe im ignoring them.
I really want to avoid court but i feel useless as there’s not much i can do

 

[Titfield]

You gave them an address that you are at during the summer. Is this an address where the occupants can be trusted to tell you that they have received a letter for you and will send it on to your term time address?

 

[honey]

You gave them an address that you are at during the summer. Is this an address where the occupants can be trusted to tell you that they have received a letter for you and will send it on to your term time address?

yes it is my home and i definitely trust my mother

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@honey. Welcome to the forum.

Possible that the Cross Country investigation team are still investigating. By the way, other than the time you got stopped (= May 2024?) are there maybe any other previous occasions when you had purchased and then travelled using railcard discounted tickets without a valid railcard, this after the old railcard had expired, whenever this was? Straightforward enough for them to check your ticket purchasing history if you've bought tickets online.

...any advice or what i should do??

One general observation. Have you since renewed your railcard, assuming of course that you are eligible to do so?

 

[swt_passenger]

Hi so i'm really worried about a train fine i got issued 2 months ago on the cross country train service and the woman said i should get a letter with in 2-4 weeks. (i'm a student and my railcard was out of date ) but i have since not received any letter and have tried calling the customer service multiple times but they just never pick up?? I'm panicking here thinking my fines going up and up but i literally don't know what to do…

That doesn’t sound like a “train fine” to me. People often (wrongly) expect a penalty fare in similar circumstances, but if it was it would have been clear to you at the time what the exact amount was, and there’d have been a 21 day deadline for payment.

It looks like on board staff reported you for further investigation. Have you any paperwork resulting from this incident?

 

[Titfield]

yes it is my home and i definitely trust my mother

Then I would venture to suggest there is no need to be unduly concerned for a few weeks. Depending on the train operator letters can take anything from a few days to 6 months to arrive. Just stay chilled and wait for the letter.

There is a good chance you will be offered an out of court settlement which will be the full anytime single fare for each journey taken (that means 2 singles for a return journey) plus an admin fee of C£100 - £200. No allowance will be made for any fares paid already. It is suggested that you check your train booking account for all the journeys you took without having a valid railcard so you can calculate the likely sum.

 

[WesternLancer]

thanks for replying. and i didn’t give a term time address as i knew i’d be back home for summer the following month.

i’m prepared to respond it’s just really frustrating when i’m constantly checking the mail and there’s nothing!! my worst nightmare would be i did receive a letter and it somehow has been accidentally thrown away or if not, they currently believe im ignoring them.
I really want to avoid court but i feel useless as there’s not much i can do

Probably just not yet sent you anything. Also Check your e-mail spam folder in case they are trying to communicate with you that way too (eg and any e-mail account linked to the on line ticketing system you may use where they could pick up an e-mail address form via eg a ticket barcode scan off the tickets you had)

 

[honey]

@honey. Welcome to the forum.

Possible that the Cross Country investigation team are still investigating. By the way, other than the time you got stopped (= May 2024?) are there maybe any other previous occasions when you had purchased and then travelled using railcard discounted tickets without a valid railcard, this after the old railcard had expired, whenever this was? Straightforward enough for them to check your ticket purchasing history if you've bought tickets online.



One general observation. Have you since renewed your railcard, assuming of course that you are eligible to do so?

Thanks for replying!
And no this was my first and definitely my last time using an expired railcard. I plan on renewing it next month when i next start taking trains again

 

[Gloster]

Just make sure that if the letter does not arrive until after the end of the vacation, presuming you are returning to university at the end of the summer, that it is forwarded promptly to you at your term time address or wherever you are. You usually only have a limited period in which to respond, otherwise the matter is likely to escalate to court: it can usually still be untangled, but it is more time and cost to do so.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks for replying!
And no this was my first and definitely my last time using an expired railcard. I plan on renewing it next month when i next start taking trains again

You may want to look on other threads here for advice on how best to reply to letters that you will receive about this - and / or head back here for advice on how to reply when you hear form them. It's important to get this response correct - you can also see what format the letters typically follow - they are written in quite threatening terms which may seem OTT if all you did was forget to renew a Railcard for example.

By looking at a few other threads you can be prepared for what to expect and what to do. Bear in mind you are ultimately needing to seek to persuade them not to prosecute you in court....

ie you are probably not dealing with the £50 / £100 Penalty Fares sums / process that you see on posters at many stations for example.

 

[duffield]

Thanks for replying!
And no this was my first and definitely my last time using an expired railcard. I plan on renewing it next month when i next start taking trains again

Probably best to renew it immediately even if you're not going to use it. It means that if necessary you can state truthfully that you have already renewed the railcard, and that will show them that you are serious about not repeating this mistake.

 

[185143]

You may want to look on other threads here for advice on how best to reply to letters that you will receive about this - and / or head back here for advice on how to reply when you hear form them. It's important to get this response correct - you can also see what format the letters typically follow - they are written in quite threatening terms which may seem OTT if all you did was forget to renew a Railcard for example.

By looking at a few other threads you can be prepared for what to expect and what to do. Bear in mind you are ultimately needing to seek to persuade them not to prosecute you in court....

ie you are probably not dealing with the £50 / £100 Penalty Fares sums / process that you see on posters at many stations for example.

CrossCountry are not a TOC which issue Penalty Fares. So if the OP was dealt with onboard an XC service, they definitely are not facing a PF.