No ticket - SWR

[User123456]

Hi all,

I was wondering if you could give me some advice. Today I got caught at Hersham station by SWR ticket inspectors at the exit of the station.

I only recently started a job in Hersham and have been buying a ticket daily from Romford. Today, purely due to finances for a few hours, didn’t have the money for a ticket. Without thinking, I’ve just used my contactless card to get from Romford to Waterloo. I then scanned ‘in’ again at Waterloo for the SWR journey and then behind me ‘out’ knowing the gate at Hersham has no barriers.

Anyway, I’ve got to Hersham and there’s ticket inspectors at the gates. In a panic, I said to the guy I’d come from surbiton station (2 stops prior) and the gate happened to be open. As I didn’t have a ticket, I’ve been given a ‘report for prosecution’ ticket.

It’s somewhat ironic because I genuinely have bought a valid ticket every day before today and on the only time I don’t have one, is the day they have ticket inspectors. It’s my own fault, albeit it was unfortunate circumstances from an overnight bill I wasn’t expecting to have come out and not getting my first pay until this afternoon.

What is the likely situation here? I’ve read that SWR are somewhat more harsh than others which isn’t ideal. The ticket guy said that SWR ‘might’ contact me but I’ll assume for now they will. It genuinely is the first offence but will they likely still throw the book at me as if it’s just the first time I’ve been caught. And the fact I lied about saying I got on at Surbiton? Presumably they can use CCTV or my bank details to somehow establish I in fact dodged the fare from Waterloo.

Thanks in advance

 

[30907]

Welcome to the forum, and don't panic, first of all

SWR will almost certainly investigate your ticket purchase history, and if there is nothing else suspicious, will then write asking for an explanation. Engage with that, truthfully and apologetically,and you will almost certainly be able to settle this out of court. They may ask for £100 admin costs, possibly more, plus the full fare from Waterloo, and that will be it - provided you don't do it again. And they won't be that bothered about the lie.

So meanwhile - are you using the most cost-effective tickets? As Hersham is beyond the Oyster Zones, it might be worth checking (or asking here!) whether some form of season ticket, or a Railcard if you are under 30, might save money.

 

[User123456]

Welcome to the forum, and don't panic, first of all

SWR will almost certainly investigate your ticket purchase history, and if there is nothing else suspicious, will then write asking for an explanation. Engage with that, truthfully and apologetically,and you will almost certainly be able to settle this out of court. They may ask for £100 admin costs, possibly more, plus the full fare from Waterloo, and that will be it - provided you don't do it again. And they won't be that bothered about the lie.

So meanwhile - are you using the most cost-effective tickets? As Hersham is beyond the Oyster Zones, it might be worth checking (or asking here!) whether some form of season ticket, or a Railcard if you are under 30, might save money.

Hi - thanks for the response.

How would I go about finding the season ticket? Is that just for the London part of the journey or does it extend to whatever the final ouster valid station would be?

As there’s only one train per half hour from Waterloo, I tend to simply buy one ticket from Romford. With my 16-25 railcard, it’s £16.70 a day. I’ve only worked here in Hersham for a month but the fares are certainly adding up so any advice on how a season ticket would be best applied would also be appreciated.

It genuinely is my first offence too. Perhaps once or twice I bought from Waterloo but even on those journeys, I’d used my ouster card for the Romford to Waterloo part of the journey so wouldn’t be fare avading.

 

[notmyrealname]

Hi.

Hopefully you'll find a season ticket that can help make this more affordable for you.

It genuinely is my first offence too. Perhaps once or twice I bought from Waterloo but even on those journeys, I’d used my ouster card for the Romford to Waterloo part of the journey so wouldn’t be fare avading.

I'm not sure I'd try out your reasoning with SWR when it comes to writing to them. When you say it's your first offence, do you mean it's the first time you've been caught? And paying from Romford to Waterloo rather than Romford to Hersham [if I understand this right] isn't fare evading?

 

[Haywain]

How would I go about finding the season ticket? Is that just for the London part of the journey or does it extend to whatever the final ouster valid station would be?

You can buy a season ticket to cover the whole journey - that would be a (weekly/monthly/period) Travelcard from Hersham to Zones 1-6. Alternatively, you could use a season from London Waterloo to Hersham and then pay the remainder by contactless. As you have a railcard, it may be cheaper to buy daily tickets for the whole journey because they are discounted. Others will, no doubt, contribute with suggestions as to the best options financially, but you are making a journey of such length that £16.70 a day doesn't sound particularly excessive.

 

[User123456]

Hi.

Hopefully you'll find a season ticket that can help make this more affordable for you.

It genuinely is my first offence too. Perhaps once or twice I bought from Waterloo but even on those journeys, I’d used my ouster card for the Romford to Waterloo part of the journey so wouldn’t be fare avading.

I'm not sure I'd try out your reasoning with SWR when it comes to writing to them. When you say it's your first offence, do you mean it's the first time you've been caught? And paying from Romford to Waterloo rather than Romford to Hersham [if I understand this right] isn't fare evading?

No I mean I used my Oyster card to pay for the journey to Waterloo from Romford and then an actual ticket on Trainline from Waterloo to Hersham.

Today is the first time I’ve been caught but also the first time I’ve actually done anything wrong. It’s quite unlucky in that sense.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Jul 2024 ==

You can buy a season ticket to cover the whole journey - that would be a (weekly/monthly/period) Travelcard from Hersham to Zones 1-6. Alternatively, you could use a season from London Waterloo to Hersham and then pay the remainder by contactless. As you have a railcard, it may be cheaper to buy daily tickets for the whole journey because they are discounted. Others will, no doubt, contribute with suggestions as to the best options financially, but you are making a journey of such length that £16.70 a day doesn't sound particularly excessive.

Thanks. I’ll have to look into it. It’s not necessarily excessive but adds up quickly.

Today I simply didn’t have the money to pay it, took a chance and it backfired spectacularly. Totally my fault and im fully aware. Was literally the first time since I started working in Hersham a month ago that I’d seen anyone manning the exits. Ironic that today would be the day on the only time I’ve done anything wrong.

 

[notmyrealname]

Thank you for the explanation and apologies that I seem to have misunderstood what you said originally. I hope that you're able to organise your finances so that you can pay the right fare going forward.

When I worked in London, I was able to get a season ticket loan from my employer, I don't know if that still happens.

 

[WesternLancer]

How would I go about finding the season ticket? Is that just for the London part of the journey or does it extend to whatever the final ouster valid station would be?

I see some advice on this given here already now but you can got to the 'Fares Advice' section of the forum and ask a question about what tickets people would advise for the journey you do on a regular basis and people will suggest the cheapest way you may be able to do this

You can keep that question separate from the thread about how to deal with the wrong fare which you have correctly put in this thread then, unless ypu already have the info you need of course.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

To let you know what happens next SWR will write to you in the next few weeks. The letter will use quite threatening language and say that they have received a report, are considering prosecuting you and asking for your version of events before deciding how to proceed. It is important that you engage with and reply to this letter. You might want to include the following in your reply:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

SWR are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) to people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. We cannot guarantee this and SWR are within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court if they want to.

SWR will search your online purchase history, based on what you've told is this shouldn't show anything adverse but if it was to show frequent anomalies then they might want to ask you about these as well.

If you are offered a settlement expect to have to pay the outstanding fare at the full Anytime rate in addition to an admin fee, typically around £150. An out of court settlement might appear to be a fine, but it isn't and you won't have a criminal record as a result of accepting one.

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