SWR Travel Irregularity Report

[tearrxx]

Hi All,

Looking for both some help and a bit of clarity here.

I was on my daily commute and was stopped at Waterloo station, my ticket was checked only to find my railcard had expired in August 2025, I hadn't realised my railcard had expired, and Trainline didn't flag this when booking a ticket at any point. I was issued a Travel Irregularity Report at the station and gave my details accordingly. I asked the SWR staff if I was able to buy the railcard immediately, to which they answered yes but the 'investigation' still has to take its course. I'm a little nervous that I may have made a typo when filling in my email details due to my surprise of this happening, but I would assume I would receive a letter as well? I would never intentionally travelled without a valid railcard, so I am mortified and really worried about what is going to happen next. I travel around 3x a week and generally save £5-7 a day.

To add to all of this, the staff are filming a Channel 5 Documentary on rail staff, I believe I was being recorded at the time but due to work and family sensitivities I really do not want this to be aired, they have given me details of the filming company involved. (If anyone knows how best to deal with this, that would be immensely appreciated.)

Would anyone be able to advise on what generally happens next, if there is anything I should be doing or if I should reach out to SWR myself.

 

[jfollows]

Welcome to the forum!

I presume you gave your name and address; in due course you will receive a letter asking for your explanation, and they will examine your Trainline booking history as well.

You could be prosecuted for a criminal offence.

If you respond by admitting your mistake and apologising, and ask if this can be settled out of court, then expect them to want full single fares for every invalid journey plus ~£150 administration fee.

Intent doesn’t come into it. You did it, so that’s that. Just as in breaking the speed limit when driving, lack of intent does not come into it.

Search the forum for many, many similar cases. SWR almost always agree to settle.

You should wait for them to contact you.

 

[AlterEgo]

To add to all of this, the staff are filming a Channel 5 Documentary on rail staff, I believe I was being recorded at the time but due to work and family sensitivities I really do not want this to be aired, they have given me details of the filming company involved. (If anyone knows how best to deal with this, that would be immensely appreciated.)

You could ask them to blur your face if you were being recorded, but they do not have to agree to this, and there is no entitlement to privacy in a public place, regardless of whether you are caught in an embarrassing situation or are committing an offence. In practice they will probably just blur your face if the footage is included.

 

[John R]

One point of interest is that elsewhere we've very recently read that one of the fully nationalised rail companies (WMR?) has under instruction from the DfT changed its policy on out of date railcards, and only issues a penalty fare, with no investigation of past instances of the railcard being used whilst out of date. Yet here we have SWR (also now under DfT) issuing a TIR, with the potential for retrospective investigation.

If the OP has travelled frequently since August (which I'm guessing they have, given they say they were commuting) then it will make a big difference (how much depending on the length and cost of journey) as to how much they are asked to pay.

 

[Haywain]

has under instruction from the DfT changed its policy on out of date railcards, and only issues a penalty fare, with no investigation of past instances of the railcard being used whilst out of date.

I'm not sure that's the correct interpretation - to me it was that they will no longer carry out further investigation when a Penalty Frae Notice has been issued, not that they do not have other options such as issuing a TIR or MG11 which would allow that investigation.

 

[WesternLancer]

To add to all of this, the staff are filming a Channel 5 Documentary on rail staff, I believe I was being recorded at the time but due to work and family sensitivities I really do not want this to be aired, they have given me details of the filming company involved. (If anyone knows how best to deal with this, that would be immensely appreciated.)

Is this Channel 5 'Fare Dodgers - At War with the Law' do you think?
Production company Middlechild Productions as per their website.

Films/Programmes — Middlechild & Northern Child

www.middlechild.tv

As mentioned above they would have been within their rights to film you but....

I would write to them and ask them if anything they films of you (give the approx date and time) could not be used - you could make that as a polite request and not really go into detail why.

I suspect they want interactions that make 'good TV' - so ideally for them people kicking off when stopped - so if your interaction was rather dull they won't be that bothered about using it anyway.

I suspect if approached politely and reasonably they will be prepared not to use footage of you - esp if they have plenty of other footage to use instead (but take care on how you word your request as the production team might be keen to try and persuade you to engage with them by giving them your side of the story etc etc) - their interest is to make a TV programme - not to help you - don't forget that - tho if SWR don't then follow their own policies correctly on how to deal with your case then at least you'd have a public forum to air your dissatisfaction.....

But an unintentional railcard expiry cases is bread and butter on this forum so it's not controversial to be stopped for it - and interestingly we are possibly seeing the govt change their approach on this in what sounds like guidance they are issuing to train companies they now control directly as part of their nationalisation work (see recent West Mids Trains case thread)

 

[Jack in England]

You will have to pay what you've got away with £5-£7 day x 3 a week since August 2025 plus fines/costs...etc just suck it up and pay and make sure it doesn't run out again.

 

[jfollows]

If you want more details, please read and follow https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/please-read-before-posting-in-disputes-prosecutions.77759/ or work out the full fares for yourself at https://www.brfares.com/

 

[AlterEgo]

You will have to pay what you've got away with £5-£7 day x 3 a week since August 2025 plus fines/costs...etc just suck it up and pay and make sure it doesn't run out again.

That's not accurate. The OP will be asked to pay for the full Anytime fares to avoid prosecution, not just the discounts they wrongly claimed.

 

[WesternLancer]

Would anyone be able to advise on what generally happens next, if there is anything I should be doing or if I should reach out to SWR myself.

If you have not seen it before the general advice often given on this forum, drafted by another forum member - will help you know what to expect and how to approach what you you should do when SWR contact you about this. It's vital to respond or it will escalate.

Here's that advice and info - hope it's useful in terms of what you should expect - also lots of other cases involving SWR and expired railcards on here you can search for to get a general idea of how it plays out:

---------------------------------------

Firstly, you committed a criminal offence by travelling with an invalid ticket and railway companies are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to. The good news is they will normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them and who haven't come to their attention before.

Next, what happens is the railway company will write to you. The letter will go to the address that you gave them / on any of your ID they checked so you need to be able to access hard copy post at that address as they often send things that way (but also check e-mail and spam). It is extremely important that you reply, and you'll only have a limited time to do so (often 14 days from the date on their communication).

When you receive the letter post a redacted copy of it in this thread, along with your draft reply and forum members will proof read it for you. You'll find lots of example letters you can use in this section of the forum but the reply basically needs to mention:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident and will not do this again
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the railway company’s administrative costs in dealing with the matter

The railway will probably offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay the cost of the fare for the journey you made at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid ticket you purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150. They will also audit your online ticket purchase history and if this shows you've purchased other tickets that were not valid (eg railcard discounted tickets when you did not have a valid railcard, or tickets for only part of the journey, or tickets bought after boarding the train you travelled on ) they will probably factor the cost of these journeys into the settlement offer. Depending on how many journeys you've made over the period concerned this could end up being expensive.

Settlements usually have to be paid in full within a few days of them being offered so if money is tight you might want to think about how you will raise the sum required at short notice.

 

[John R]

I'm not sure that's the correct interpretation - to me it was that they will no longer carry out further investigation when a Penalty Frae Notice has been issued, not that they do not have other options such as issuing a TIR or MG11 which would allow that investigation.

I thought the wording was fairly clear, so interesting that you have a different take on it. "They are to issue PF's" seems a clear instruction not to issue TIRs or MG11s.

There has been a distinct change of approach that the RPSMs have been told to use going forward (as directed by DFTO).

They are to issue PFs for instances such as this and not to be audited further. Internally this has been linked to bad press regarding WMTs conduct regarding email threats etc.

Expired railcard - penalty fare

Hi, I was on the train with WM today and I didn’t know my railcard expired since December. I was checked by an officer where I found out and profusely apologised. He took a picture of my railcard and took my name + address. I got issued a penalty fare which I just paid. I’m just super...

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[jumble]

One point of interest is that elsewhere we've very recently read that one of the fully nationalised rail companies (WMR?) has under instruction from the DfT changed its policy on out of date railcards, and only issues a penalty fare, with no investigation of past instances of the railcard being used whilst out of date. Yet here we have SWR (also now under DfT) issuing a TIR, with the potential for retrospective investigation.

If the OP has travelled frequently since August (which I'm guessing they have, given they say they were commuting) then it will make a big difference (how much depending on the length and cost of journey) as to how much they are asked to pay.

This could of course be that as a result of WMT making baseless threats the DFT has singled them out and it is not a policy across the board.
(We are also assuming that there has been no misunderstanding/confusion as we have not seen anything official or what is happening in practice although to be fair the forum member posting does appear to work for the TOC so this is likely to be correct)

 

[Haywain]

This could of course be that as a result of WMT making baseless threats the DFT has singled them out and it is not a policy across the board.

The instruction is not from DfT but from DfTO, a subtle but important difference. I am aware that some instructions around revenue protection were given by DfTO to another of the TOCs that came into public ownership that would have reduced their issuing of MG11s.

 

[SECR 65]

Hi All,

Looking for both some help and a bit of clarity here.

I was on my daily commute and was stopped at Waterloo station, my ticket was checked only to find my railcard had expired in August 2025, I hadn't realised my railcard had expired, and Trainline didn't flag this when booking a ticket at any point.

This on Trainline seems to catch a lot of people out.

I was issued a Travel Irregularity Report at the station and gave my details accordingly. I asked the SWR staff if I was able to buy the railcard immediately, to which they answered yes but the 'investigation' still has to take its course. I'm a little nervous that I may have made a typo when filling in my email details due to my surprise of this happening, but I would assume I would receive a letter as well?

Usually initial contact is via post. As I understand it if they cannot contact you then they are able to take action againgst you.

I would never intentionally travelled without a valid railcard, so I am mortified and really worried about what is going to happen next. I travel around 3x a week and generally save £5-7 a day.

You are unlikely to be prosecuted. It's understandable that you are very worried, but unfortunately there is nothing you can do for the moment except reading through other SWR cases on the forum as others have suggested.

To add to all of this, the staff are filming a Channel 5 Documentary on rail staff, I believe I was being recorded at the time but due to work and family sensitivities I really do not want this to be aired, they have given me details of the filming company involved. (If anyone knows how best to deal with this, that would be immensely appreciated.)

Would anyone be able to advise on what generally happens next, if there is anything I should be doing or if I should reach out to SWR myself.

I would advise against contacting SWR at this stage. Wait for a letter which should be in the next few months. If you haven't heard anything in 4-5 months then come back here to establish next steps.
You may be asked in the letter to provide your version of the events. Or, they might say they are going to prosecute you. They are likely to look through your Trainline history and see you have been travelling with an expired railcard for a while. Post the letter here with personal details redacted and members can advise.

 

[WesternLancer]

To add to all of this, the staff are filming a Channel 5 Documentary on rail staff, I believe I was being recorded at the time but due to work and family sensitivities I really do not want this to be aired, they have given me details of the filming company involved. (If anyone knows how best to deal with this, that would be immensely appreciated.)

Would anyone be able to advise on what generally happens next, if there is anything I should be doing or if I should reach out to SWR myself.

Just watching channel 5.
All the people filmed with ticket ‘irregularities’ seem to have faces obscured and voices distorted (unless everyone who travels on SWR has a really strange voice . )