No Letter

[plshelp]

Hello everyone,

I need help with contacting GWR. I'm waiting for a letter due to using the incorrect railcard and boarding the wrong train. Normally, there is an off peak single train from Reading to London that I can take anytime, but on this occasion, I accidently boarded a not off peak train, which was only a few minutes apart from the one my ticket was. Additionally, my ticket was for a train that should have been passing through a certain station. And the train I was on didnt pass through that station.

Ill be out of country for 2 months and moving from the address I gave to the officer when I'm back. Its been 9 weeks with no letter recieved.

Can someone provide an email for GWR or any other contact information so I can resolve this online before I leave?

Thanks!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hello everyone,

I need help with contacting GWR. I'm waiting for a letter due to using the incorrect railcard and boarding the wrong train. Normally, there is an off peak single train from Reading to London that I can take anytime, but on this occasion, I accidently boarded a not off peak train, which was only a few minutes apart from the one my ticket was. Additionally, my ticket was for a train that should have been passing through a certain station. And the train I was on didnt pass through that station.

Ill be out of country for 2 months and moving from the address I gave to the officer when I'm back. Its been 9 weeks with no letter recieved.

Can someone provide an email for GWR or any other contact information so I can resolve this online before I leave?

Thanks!

Welcome.

This doc might help - there is a generic contact address but also p13 has an e-mail for the prosecutions team - you could use both addresses.

Not so easy if you have not had an initial letter with ref numbers on it

https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/revenue-protection-policy/GWR-Revenue-Protection-Policy-January-2023.pdf

People here may be able to give you other advice on what best to say to them based on what was wrong with your ticket. Probably needs more info on your ticket and the train times though, so it might be worth posting more info to see what people say.

 

[furlong]

Which railcard did you use? What railcard do you actually have?
What date/time was the train you meant to catch and the one you actually did? There's no penalty for using an otherwise valid off-peak ticket on a peak train - you are just charged the difference in fare.
What station was the train meant to pass through but didn't?
How did you purchase the ticket - online/app or from a station?
What exactly was the ticket and how much did you pay for it? Origin/destination, single/return, type etc.

 

[plshelp]

Which railcard did you use? What railcard do you actually have?
What date/time was the train you meant to catch and the one you actually did? There's no penalty for using an otherwise valid off-peak ticket on a peak train - you are just charged the difference in fare.
What station was the train meant to pass through but didn't?
How did you purchase the ticket - online/app or from a station?
What exactly was the ticket and how much did you pay for it? Origin/destination, single/return, type etc.

I used the 16-17 railcard by mistake instead of the 16-25 railcard, because I forgot to change it back to 16-25 railcard when I bought the tickets.
I bought the 20.12 ticket from Reading- London paddington, that is through Twyford. I couldnt remember which train I took, but it wasnt through Twyford. I typically buy off-peak tickets, so I didn't pay much attention to which train I boarded, assuming all trains would be fine. This was an oversight on my part.
I purchased my ticket through Trainpal. I bought it for £11.55 (single) and usually with the 16-25 railcard its around £15 (single).

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Aug 2024 ==

Welcome.

This doc might help - there is a generic contact address but also p13 has an e-mail for the prosecutions team - you could use both addresses.

Not so easy if you have not had an initial letter with ref numbers on it

https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/revenue-protection-policy/GWR-Revenue-Protection-Policy-January-2023.pdf

People here may be able to give you other advice on what best to say to them based on what was wrong with your ticket. Probably needs more info on your ticket and the train times though, so it might be worth posting more info to see what people say.

Thank you!

 

[The exile]

I used the 16-17 railcard by mistake instead of the 16-25 railcard, because I forgot to change it back to 16-25 railcard when I bought the tickets.
I bought the 20.12 ticket from Reading- London paddington, that is through Twyford. I couldnt remember which train I took, but it wasnt through Twyford.

Thank you!

If you ended up in Paddington, you must have gone via Twyford. The train you were on might not have stopped, but it will have gone through the station.

 

[plshelp]

If you ended up in Paddington, you must have gone via Twyford. The train you were on might not have stopped, but it will have gone through the station.

Yes, correct.

 

[The exile]

When you say “I bought the 2012 ticket” do you mean you bought a ticket for the 20:12 from Reading to Paddington?

 

[WesternLancer]

So it is possible in this case that the ticket irregularity in question here is down to applying the wrong railcard discount (16-17 Railcard that provides a greater discount that the railcard the OP actually held)

I would have thought a train at 20.12 from Reading into London was 'Off Peak'.

For the benefit of the OP a 'route via' does not mean the train has to stop at the station named (the other route from Reading being the route to Waterloo, which does not pass through Twyford).

The OP should be aware that they will be looking at other Online ticket purchase records to see if 16-17 Railcard discounts have been applied on other occasions as well now they know that Railcard is not held. They may ask about that if it has happened on other occasions and seek money for such occasions as well as this one where you were stopped.

 

[furlong]

Do you mean £12.55 not £11.55?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Aug 2024 ==

Also, if you are making only a single journey, consider touching in with a contactless card and touching out at Paddington which costs £12.60 single off-peak - no railcard required.

 

[plshelp]

So it is possible in this case that the ticket irregularity in question here is down to applying the wrong railcard discount (16-17 Railcard that provides a greater discount that the railcard the OP actually held)

I would have thought a train at 20.12 from Reading into London was 'Off Peak'.

For the benefit of the OP a 'route via' does not mean the train has to stop at the station named (the other route from Reading being the route to Waterloo, which does not pass through Twyford).

The OP should be aware that they will be looking at other Online ticket purchase records to see if 16-17 Railcard discounts have been applied on other occasions as well now they know that Railcard is not held. They may ask about that if it has happened on other occasions and seek money for such occasions as well as this one where you were stopped.

This is the ticket that I bought, but I boarded an earlier train that arrived at Reading station a couple of minutes before my scheduled train.
Since it was quite late and already off-peak, I assumed I could board any train.
The train I boarded is a direct service from Reading to Paddington. However, the officer mentioned that my ticket is valid for a train that stops through Twyford.

 

[WesternLancer]

This is the ticket that I bought, but I boarded an earlier train that arrived at Reading station a couple of minutes before my scheduled train.
Since it was quite late and already off-peak, I assumed I could board any train.
The train I boarded is a direct service from Reading to Paddington. However, the officer mentioned that my ticket is valid for a train that stops through Twyford.

Ah I see. You bought a ticket that was split at Twyford. Unfortunately that does mean your train must stop there. It’s not to do with peak or off peak. That has compounded your Railcard error.

I’m not sure how much you saved by splitting the ticket but probably not enough to make it worth the inconvenience of only being able to take slower trains.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Aug 2024 ==

But the key issue at the moment is about getting letter from gwr when you are about to be out of the country for a period and then returning to a different address to the one given when questioned? And what to do about this.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Aug 2024 ==

Given you have no case reference (unless you were given paperwork on the day with a ref number on it which you can quote) and
given you are awaiting the letter I would be tempted to use those e-mail addresses and also then post a copy of the e-mail to the address in that pdf document hard copy stating along following lines:

Dear Sir/Madam

I was stopped and questions about my train ticket validity on

x date
approx X time
On the train between Reading and London Paddington.
Insert any reference number you have

I was advised that I would be written to about this.

The address I gave was [Insert postal address you gave] but please be aware I will soon be moving from this address

I will be away from the UK between xx date and yy date

When I return on yy date my address will be: [INSERT NEW ADDRESS]

Because I am going to be out of the UK I would be grateful if you could send me any communications about this by e-mail. My e-mail address is: [INSERT}
This will enable me to respond as required.

Yours faithfully