Please help! Stressful train ride

[triaain]

Train: Plymouth to Exeter


GWR ticket inspector asked to see my railcard. I said I didn’t realise it expired. He showed me his train officer ID card I’m assuming, I was too stressed to read it. Then he sat down near me, leaning over and asked how many journeys I have made since it expired in august and I said a few, not properly counting or realising that it had in fact been more. Then he instructed me to get up previous train journeys on the phone and took photographic evidence of them and my account email as well as wrote down all of my details from my driving licence. He said that I had committed an offence, I said it was unintentional and the ticket was booked through the university but he said its my responsibility so I asked whether I could pay for a student rail card now and renew it as I was attending a conference. He said no and explained he has to send off all the details to GWR and they will calculate the expense then email me in 5 months. I was worried as I tend to be forgetful so I said what if I don’t see the email he said that if I didn’t I would face incarceration. After he mentioned this I got scared and asked further details he said if I don’t respond within 3 weeks then the fine will increase and then it will go to court. He wanted my signature, I couldn’t understand why so i said if I pay the fine do I have to sign? He said I don’t have to sign but that will be noted in court. After this I asked if that was everything because I was presenting at a conference and had urgent matters to attend to, which I kept expressing to him. He voided my ticket and printed me a new one which didn’t even work at the gates, this almost made me late to conference. He was with me for at least 20 minutes, it was a very unpleasant experience and scared me as a 21 year old female.


If anyone could provide any information further information, I still don’t know whether I will be charged a penalty fine or if it can be appealed. Should I buy a student railcard immediately to show that it was a mistake on my part?

 

[WesternLancer]

Train: Plymouth to Exeter


GWR ticket inspector asked to see my railcard. I said I didn’t realise it expired. He showed me his train officer ID card I’m assuming, I was too stressed to read it. Then he sat down near me, leaning over and asked how many journeys I have made since it expired in august and I said a few, not properly counting or realising that it had in fact been more. Then he instructed me to get up previous train journeys on the phone and took photographic evidence of them and my account email as well as wrote down all of my details from my driving licence. He said that I had committed an offence, I said it was unintentional and the ticket was booked through the university but he said its my responsibility so I asked whether I could pay for a student rail card now and renew it as I was attending a conference. He said no and explained he has to send off all the details to GWR and they will calculate the expense then email me in 5 months. I was worried as I tend to be forgetful so I said what if I don’t see the email he said that if I didn’t I would face incarceration. After he mentioned this I got scared and asked further details he said if I don’t respond within 3 weeks then the fine will increase and then it will go to court. He wanted my signature, I couldn’t understand why so i said if I pay the fine do I have to sign? He said I don’t have to sign but that will be noted in court. After this I asked if that was everything because I was presenting at a conference and had urgent matters to attend to, which I kept expressing to him. He voided my ticket and printed me a new one which didn’t even work at the gates, this almost made me late to conference. He was with me for at least 20 minutes, it was a very unpleasant experience and scared me as a 21 year old female.


If anyone could provide any information further information, I still don’t know whether I will be charged a penalty fine or if it can be appealed. Should I buy a student railcard immediately to show that it was a mistake on my part?

Welcome. You will get the advice here on what has actually happened and what will happen next and what you can do to minimise consequences.

Don’t worry though. None of this will result in prison and even court can be avoided with advice from here I would suggest.

 

[triaain]

Welcome. You will get the advice here on what has actually happened and what will happen next and what you can do to minimise consequences.

Don’t worry though. None of this will result in prison and even court can be avoided with advice from here I would suggest.

Thank you. How can I minimise the consequences, do you have any suggestions?

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you. How can I minimise the consequences, do you have any suggestions?

Yes. You’ll get the advice on that. Nothing you can do at this moment but do have a read of the GWR revenue protection policy pdf on their website. And yes. Do buy a new railcard as it’s something you can demonstrate you did to rectify the situation when it was brought to your attention.

However do not contact GWR about this until they contact you and get advice here before responding when they do contact you.

Have a look at some of the many other threads here relating to expired railcard errors too.

 

[Titfield]

To answer the questions you have posed:
1. You won’t receive a penalty fare as they can only be issued at the time.
2. Buying a young persons railcard now will not change the facts that you used discounted tickets without a valid railcard but it will show good faith to GWR.
3. GWR will write to you in what may seem a threatening way (notice of intending prosecution) however they nearly always settle out of court providing you engage with them, apologise, show remorse and assure them you won’t do this again.
4. When the letter arrives please upload to this thread with all personal details obscured. Forum members can then give advice tailored to the questions GWR ask.
5. The likely financial penalty will be the cost of the full fare for the journeys taken plus an admin fee of C£150.
6. If you read the advice @Hadders has given in similar situations (use the search button top right of the page) this will give you a good understanding of what to expect.

 

[WesternLancer]

By the way. You won’t be charged a penalty fare because they can only be issued at the time of the incident. I suspect you have been reported for investigation which is what happens often with expired railcard errors so they can seek payment for the fares wrongly discounted.

You can’t appeal what has happened.

 

[John R]

He was with me for at least 20 minutes, it was a very unpleasant experience and scared me as a 21 year old female.

I'm not sure what the relevance of your age and sex are in this? You were stopped by an officer of the railway, and found to be without a valid ticket. What do you think he should have done differently - you are an adult now after all?

But turning to advice, the only comment I would add to the advice given earlier is to clarify the point on being charged full fares for any previous journeys. That won't be as simple as simply charging you the difference between what you paid and the fare you would have paid without a railcard discount. It usually involves paying the full Anytime Single for every journey they find, with no offset for whatever you have paid already.

If your journeys have been
local then this won't be too painful, but Anytime Single fares for longer distances on GWR are eyewateringly expensive. As an example, an Anytime Single between Plymouth and Paddington is currently £149.50, so simply doing one return journey would add £299 to the amount they will ask from you.

If you think this is going to be a problem then the website BRFares.com is a useful resource to find the Anytime Single fare between any two stations (make sure you scroll down to the standard class fares, as First Class fares are shown first.)

 

[WesternLancer]

Train: Plymouth to Exeter


GWR ticket inspector asked to see my railcard. I said I didn’t realise it expired. He showed me his train officer ID card I’m assuming, I was too stressed to read it. Then he sat down near me, leaning over and asked how many journeys I have made since it expired in august and I said a few, not properly counting or realising that it had in fact been more. Then he instructed me to get up previous train journeys on the phone and took photographic evidence of them and my account email as well as wrote down all of my details from my driving licence. He said that I had committed an offence, I said it was unintentional and the ticket was booked through the university but he said its my responsibility so I asked whether I could pay for a student rail card now and renew it as I was attending a conference. He said no and explained he has to send off all the details to GWR and they will calculate the expense then email me in 5 months. I was worried as I tend to be forgetful so I said what if I don’t see the email he said that if I didn’t I would face incarceration. After he mentioned this I got scared and asked further details he said if I don’t respond within 3 weeks then the fine will increase and then it will go to court. He wanted my signature, I couldn’t understand why so i said if I pay the fine do I have to sign? He said I don’t have to sign but that will be noted in court. After this I asked if that was everything because I was presenting at a conference and had urgent matters to attend to, which I kept expressing to him. He voided my ticket and printed me a new one which didn’t even work at the gates, this almost made me late to conference. He was with me for at least 20 minutes, it was a very unpleasant experience and scared me as a 21 year old female.


If anyone could provide any information further information, I still don’t know whether I will be charged a penalty fine or if it can be appealed. Should I buy a student railcard immediately to show that it was a mistake on my part?

The important thing is not to get stressed about this because the situation is manageable.

One thing you can do at this stage is work through your own ticket buying records for tickets bought on
Line since the railcard expired and make a private list of all those tickets to work out the sort of sum they will be seeking from you for tickets that were discounted with a discount you mistakenly believed you were entitled to. Then you can take steps to save that money and have it ready.