LNER expired railcard

[thesnakeman]

Hi

In error my Railcard must have expired. I thought it was valid until 2026.

When checking for it through apps when ticked scanned I couldn't find it. The signal wasn't great.

The inspector came back and still no luck. He kindly said he will return after I told him my final destination.

I realised it had actually expired (16-25) and I missed the reminder email. I bought a new one year Railcard (26-30).

The inspector never came back to speak to me. I was thinking of finding him to explain and apologise, but was worried he would think I tried to make a runner if he came and I wasn't there.

My e-ticket from LNER was scanned so I presume the information is there.

Will I receive any prosecution? It was a genuine mistake...

 

[AlterEgo]

If he didn't come back he probably got involved with something else and forgot about you. I wouldn't worry.

 

[thesnakeman]

Thanks for the reply. It's frustrating for a genuine mistake !

Lesson learnt is that I'll always screenshot the Railcard before boarding (easier to keep when they are only valid for 1 year now).

I presume when they scan they don't pull details that link to me or anything, and they'd have likely spoken to me if they wanted to pursue something?

He did even try to help by asking if it was on my Railcard app when I tried to load it up.

 

[blimmo]

A screenshot of the railcard app is not officially sufficient to prove your entitlement to the railcard discount. Practically you may get away with it with many staff of course.

If your railcard is in the railcard app it will allow you to show the railcard for 72 hours after you have opened the app while connected to the internet so if you check before boarding you should have no trouble displaying it later. If it does fail to load try disabling internet on your device (turn on airplane mode) to ensure the app uses the cache and doesn't try to connect over the dodgy train wifi / data.

Tbh I've never understood why they can't do railcards like etickets and simply provide a static barcode that links to a database on the guard's device. I suppose the requirement to show an image alongside verifying validity could be problematic but this really seems perfectly surmountable...

 

[thesnakeman]

Sorry, I meant when they scan my eticket, my personal info isn't linked to that eg billing etc ?

 

[John R]

Sorry, I meant when they scan my eticket, my personal info isn't linked to that eg billing etc ?

Yes, the details related to the account will be accessible, but it’s not obvious in this instance that anything would be followed up.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Yes, the details related to the account will be accessible, but it’s not obvious in this instance that anything would be followed up.

If they were going to investigate with a view to a threat of prosecution, I think they have to notify you at the time.

What they might do is analyse your purchases through Trainline or whoever. If they find these purchased with a Railcard discount, they might send a threatening email demanding evidence of Railcard ownership. It's suggested on this forum that it's better to remain silent as anything you do say may be treated as evidence against you. For example if you disclosed that you had purchased railcards on 1st January 2024 and 1st Narch 2025, they might infer that any tickets bought with discounts in January and February 2025 were invalid if they can show that you used them.

As a precaution, you should perhaps retain records of historic railcard purchases.

 

[island]

If they were going to investigate with a view to a threat of prosecution, I think they have to notify you at the time.

They don't.

 

[thesnakeman]

Thanks all for the replies. And is LNER known to possibly prosecute without notifying / send emails like that?

For the record, all my other journeys have always had a valid Railcard. Generally theres an inspector who checks, and nowadays sometimes scans the Railcard.

 

[Hadders]

Tbh I've never understood why they can't do railcards like etickets and simply provide a static barcode that links to a database on the guard's device. I suppose the requirement to show an image alongside verifying validity could be problematic but this really seems perfectly surmountable...

Because the railcard could be distributed to multiple people, and each scan of the railcard would show as valid.

 

[blimmo]

Hence "the requirement to show an image" on the scanning device. I presume the scanners require internet access to function anyway since otherwise how do they check the ticket hasn't been refunded/already scanned?

 

[island]

Hence "the requirement to show an image" on the scanning device. I presume the scanners require internet access to function anyway since otherwise how do they check the ticket hasn't been refunded/already scanned?

The ticket scanners will function with or without internet. Without internet they can still check the content embedded in the barcode including ticket type, from/to, discount, time of issue etc.