This is a draft for my letter. Will put the reference in later
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reply to your letter.
On 2 November I travelled between Newcastle and Manchester Victoria. My ticket was inspected on the train and it was discovered at that point that my 16-25 railcard had expired and so the ticket was invalid. The inspector wrote me a travel irregularity report.
I would like to sincerely apologise for this error on my part. The ticket (to travel down to Manchester for my grandmother's birthday) was bought for me by a family member. They asked me when booking the ticket if I had a railcard. Although I knew that I had a railcard and told them so, I had neglected to check if the railcard was still in-date before boarding the train and when I showed it to the inspector he pointed out it had already expired a few weeks prior.
I do understand that it is completely down to me to check the railcard is in date before using a ticket with the railcard discount, and that I was negligent in failing to do this. This was the only time I have ever travelled with an out of date railcard and am confident that this will not happen again. Promptly after the incident, I renewed the railcard for three years.
I understand the seriousness of the issue. I do hope you can see from the above that there was no intent to evade the correct fare and that it was a simple but negligent mistake on my part. I hope it is possible to avoid the prosecution mentioned in your letter. Equally, I fully understand that these matters bring a cost to the company and want to cover the complete cost of the journey without a railcard and any administrative costs you may have incurred as a result, if you are able to provide details.
I hope you can accept my apology and look forward to hearing back from you. if you require any further details or clarification, I would of course be very willing to provide it.
Yours sincerely
name
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reply to your letter.
On 2 November I travelled between Newcastle and Manchester Victoria. My ticket was inspected on the train and it was discovered at that point that my 16-25 railcard had expired and so the ticket was invalid. The inspector wrote me a travel irregularity report.
I would like to sincerely apologise for this error on my part. The ticket (to travel down to Manchester for my grandmother's birthday) was bought for me by a family member. They asked me when booking the ticket if I had a railcard. Although I knew that I had a railcard and told them so, I had neglected to check if the railcard was still in-date before boarding the train and when I showed it to the inspector he pointed out it had already expired a few weeks prior.
I do understand that it is completely down to me to check the railcard is in date before using a ticket with the railcard discount, and that I was negligent in failing to do this. This was the only time I have ever travelled with an out of date railcard and am confident that this will not happen again. Promptly after the incident, I renewed the railcard for three years.
I understand the seriousness of the issue. I do hope you can see from the above that there was no intent to evade the correct fare and that it was a simple but negligent mistake on my part. I hope it is possible to avoid the prosecution mentioned in your letter. Equally, I fully understand that these matters bring a cost to the company and want to cover the complete cost of the journey without a railcard and any administrative costs you may have incurred as a result, if you are able to provide details.
I hope you can accept my apology and look forward to hearing back from you. if you require any further details or clarification, I would of course be very willing to provide it.
Yours sincerely
name
