What should I expect

[allypinally]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here and this happened yesterday. I'm just hoping for maybe a bit of an idea of what to expect because of my mistakes.

Yesterday I was travelling with my partner from York (15.31) to Cambridge (18.09) (purchased the ticket around 3 weeks ago), with a change in Stevenage (LNER and then Thameslink/Great Northern). We arrived at York a bit early and mistakenly got on an earlier train which went directly to London King's Cross (15.19 rather than 15.31, I believe). We misunderstood because the trains left from the same platform from the same destination, but this was completely our fault for not checking closely enough. We spoke to the conductor on the train, and he said not to worry about it, he just wanted to make sure we knew we wouldn't be able to change at Stevenage. We said no problem, we knew how to get back from London. Here I made my mistake - I should have bought a ticket for the London to Cambridge travel at that point, but I just got preoccupied with something else and forgot.

The train ended up getting in a few minutes later than expected (17.16 rather than 17.10), and we sprinted to change platforms to the 17.18 Great Northern London to King's Lynn train (via Cambridge). Once on the (very busy) train, we settled down and I forgot about the ticket again. When I saw the ticket officer I remembered and I bought an anytime day single ticket for the journey (thought this would be ok, I was already kicking myself for not having acted earlier), but when the ticket officer scanned my ticket he informed me that because I had only bought the ticket a few minutes ago that I would be written up. He took all my details, and informed me that I would need to wait for a letter in the post and that I would be under investigation or prosecuted. He gave me the slip of paper that said I should await further information (it has a GTREMG number on the top, which I understand means that the prosecutions team will contact me, but I also don't know who they are or what they may do).

I completely appreciate that I may be overreacting, and that this only happened yesterday, but I'm really worried about what might happen. Is it likely that this would go to court? I think I broke a railway byelaw (but I'd also seen people buying tickets on trains before, so I didn't know I was doing anything wrong by buying a ticket this late) - I've always had the right travel tickets before, and I feel like such an idiot for not buying the ticket the moment I knew I needed it. Is anyone able to tell me what I might have to expect from this encounter? I'm an anxious person and this is really upsetting me.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here and this happened yesterday. I'm just hoping for maybe a bit of an idea of what to expect because of my mistakes.

Yesterday I was travelling with my partner from York (15.31) to Cambridge (18.09) (purchased the ticket around 3 weeks ago), with a change in Stevenage (LNER and then Thameslink/Great Northern). We arrived at York a bit early and mistakenly got on an earlier train which went directly to London King's Cross (15.19 rather than 15.31, I believe). We misunderstood because the trains left from the same platform from the same destination, but this was completely our fault for not checking closely enough. We spoke to the conductor on the train, and he said not to worry about it, he just wanted to make sure we knew we wouldn't be able to change at Stevenage. We said no problem, we knew how to get back from London. Here I made my mistake - I should have bought a ticket for the London to Cambridge travel at that point, but I just got preoccupied with something else and forgot.

The train ended up getting in a few minutes later than expected (17.16 rather than 17.10), and we sprinted to change platforms to the 17.18 Great Northern London to King's Lynn train (via Cambridge). Once on the (very busy) train, we settled down and I forgot about the ticket again. When I saw the ticket officer I remembered and I bought an anytime day single ticket for the journey (thought this would be ok, I was already kicking myself for not having acted earlier), but when the ticket officer scanned my ticket he informed me that because I had only bought the ticket a few minutes ago that I would be written up. He took all my details, and informed me that I would need to wait for a letter in the post and that I would be under investigation or prosecuted. He gave me the slip of paper that said I should await further information (it has a GTREMG number on the top, which I understand means that the prosecutions team will contact me, but I also don't know who they are or what they may do).

I completely appreciate that I may be overreacting, and that this only happened yesterday, but I'm really worried about what might happen. Is it likely that this would go to court? I think I broke a railway byelaw (but I'd also seen people buying tickets on trains before, so I didn't know I was doing anything wrong by buying a ticket this late) - I've always had the right travel tickets before, and I feel like such an idiot for not buying the ticket the moment I knew I needed it. Is anyone able to tell me what I might have to expect from this encounter? I'm an anxious person and this is really upsetting me.

Welcome to the forum.

The worst possible outcome would be that the railway take this matter to court, and you are punished for it. But the punishment would be a fine - which obviously is expensive, but to spell it out:

You will not go to prison.

Neither will you have to do probation.


But that's the worst possible outcome. What we find will happen in almost every case involving GTR (the train company who stopped you) is that as long as you engage with the process and make it clear that you won't make the same mistake again, they will agree to settle out of court: that is, you will have to pay them the cost of the train ticket that you should have bought, plus the cost of their investigation. Think about a total payment of around £200, but hopefully rather less.

GTR will write to you - but it may take them several months (four or five months seems to be the typical delay at the moment). The letter may be headed something like 'Notice of Intention to Prosecute' which sounds pretty alarming - but if you read it closely you will probably find that actually the railway want information from you. Keep an eye out for the letter, and it will be important to reply to it or GTR really will take you to court. We're happy to help with how you should reply if you would like us to do that.

So for the moment, keep an eye on your post - but try and relax. You won't be going to prison, and the police won't be knocking on your door to arrest you. Ultimately, this is one of those rather irritating things which are a nuisance to get through but will eventually turn out OK.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hello everyone,

This is my first time posting here and this happened yesterday. I'm just hoping for maybe a bit of an idea of what to expect because of my mistakes.

Yesterday I was travelling with my partner from York (15.31) to Cambridge (18.09) (purchased the ticket around 3 weeks ago), with a change in Stevenage (LNER and then Thameslink/Great Northern). We arrived at York a bit early and mistakenly got on an earlier train which went directly to London King's Cross (15.19 rather than 15.31, I believe). We misunderstood because the trains left from the same platform from the same destination, but this was completely our fault for not checking closely enough. We spoke to the conductor on the train, and he said not to worry about it, he just wanted to make sure we knew we wouldn't be able to change at Stevenage. We said no problem, we knew how to get back from London. Here I made my mistake - I should have bought a ticket for the London to Cambridge travel at that point, but I just got preoccupied with something else and forgot.

The train ended up getting in a few minutes later than expected (17.16 rather than 17.10), and we sprinted to change platforms to the 17.18 Great Northern London to King's Lynn train (via Cambridge). Once on the (very busy) train, we settled down and I forgot about the ticket again. When I saw the ticket officer I remembered and I bought an anytime day single ticket for the journey (thought this would be ok, I was already kicking myself for not having acted earlier), but when the ticket officer scanned my ticket he informed me that because I had only bought the ticket a few minutes ago that I would be written up. He took all my details, and informed me that I would need to wait for a letter in the post and that I would be under investigation or prosecuted. He gave me the slip of paper that said I should await further information (it has a GTREMG number on the top, which I understand means that the prosecutions team will contact me, but I also don't know who they are or what they may do).

I completely appreciate that I may be overreacting, and that this only happened yesterday, but I'm really worried about what might happen. Is it likely that this would go to court? I think I broke a railway byelaw (but I'd also seen people buying tickets on trains before, so I didn't know I was doing anything wrong by buying a ticket this late) - I've always had the right travel tickets before, and I feel like such an idiot for not buying the ticket the moment I knew I needed it. Is anyone able to tell me what I might have to expect from this encounter? I'm an anxious person and this is really upsetting me.

Make sure you keep the slip of paper with that ref number on it safe. Take a photo of it maybe.

It may be some weeks or even months before you hear from the railway company about this so keep an eye out for hard copy post but also email and spam. Post is the usual method however.

 

[z444z]

In addition to the good advice above, if it reaches 6 months from the date of the incident and you still haven’t heard anything from GTR, come back and let us know so we can help figure out what that might mean.

 

[allypinally]

Thanks everyone for your kind replies - I'll post back as soon as I hear anything and keep track of all my documents. Thank you all!