Travel Incident Report

[mcrldn]

Hi all,

I hope you guys have a good day and would lovely to help me.

So, long story short. On 16 January 2025, I got a travel incident report when I was traveling from London to Manchester Piccadilly.
The officer gave me a TIR because I use an expired railcard, which at the time I wasn’t aware if the railcard has been expired.

On 3 March 2025, I received a letter from the Northern Railway DRPU and I already sent an email to them on 4 March 2025 (the letter stated it been issued on 20 February 2025). To my concern is whether I have responded to them in my email not exceeding 21 days.
My question is:

1. Does the email that I send is considered a response to them? Or do I need to wait for their response so it could be said that I responded to their letter? Because it was stated that they might proceed to take legal action if I do not response to them within 21 days.

2. Do I need to send a physical letter also to them or email is more than enough? My only concern is because I will travel away from the UK for more than a month time, and I’m not sure whether someone will collect the letter for me while I’m away.

It will be a great help if you can help me with my questions.

Thank you so much.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Hi all,

I hope you guys have a good day and would lovely to help me.

So, long story short. On 16 January 2025, I got a travel incident report when I was traveling from London to Manchester Piccadilly.
The officer gave me a TIR because I use an expired railcard, which at the time I wasn’t aware if the railcard has been expired.

On 3 March 2025, I received a letter from the Northern Railway DRPU and I already sent an email to them on 4 March 2025 (the letter stated it been issued on 20 February 2025). To my concern is whether I have responded to them in my email not exceeding 21 days.
My question is:

1. Does the email that I send is considered a response to them? Or do I need to wait for their response so it could be said that I responded to their letter? Because it was stated that they might proceed to take legal action if I do not response to them within 21 days.

2. Do I need to send a physical letter also to them or email is more than enough? My only concern is because I will travel away from the UK for more than a month time, and I’m not sure whether someone will collect the letter for me while I’m away.

It will be a great help if you can help me with my questions.

Thank you so much.

Welcome to the forum!

If the letter you got gave an email address to respond to, then that means that Northern are happy for you to reply by email. So you should have nothing to worry about. But hang on to a copy of your email, so you know exactly what you said, and when you sent it (and to what address!) just in case anything goes wrong. And keep an eye out for a letter or an email back: check in your email spam box too so that you don't miss anything.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@mcrldn. Welcome to the forum. How long before 16th January 2025 had your previous railcard expired? If you made additional journeys using inappropriately discounted tickets, you might end up getting asked to pay the fares for these as well. Having said that, the London->Manchester fare will be expensive enough (£184.70 if charged at the old Anytime Day Single rate, and with no allowance made for what was paid already for the ticket that was invalid) and likely that Northern will add an admin fee on top.

P.S. What arrangements are you planning to make as regards dealing with letter correspondence when you are outwith the UK?