Since my last post I’ve got in touch with the citizens advice bureau for some advice, and they’ve sent me the link on the national rail website about penalty fares.
Unfortunately Citizens Advice are not a brilliant resource for helping you themselves when it comes to legal matters such as this, as has been proven by this rather useless response.
Can someone clear up what the correct procedure is, as it says that the fine should be £20 or twice the amount of a single journey.
A Penalty Fare is not a fine. A fine is only imposed by a criminal Court upon conviction - so there is a substantial difference here, as a Penalty Fare is a civil charge through which a travel irregularity is settled without involving the Courts. There is never an obligation on a train company to issue or offer a Penalty Fare - they can resolve an irregularity through whichever process they prefer, be that ignoring it, selling a discounted ticket, selling an undiscounted ticket, issuing a Penalty Fare, or taking details for prosecution. What you did, however, was not an irregularity by the faintest stretch of imagination.
. But I haven’t been issued with this fine
No you haven't, and it isn't possible to issue a Penalty Fare "after the fact". (Again, a Penalty Fare is not a fine).
and instead had TiL write to me making a demand for a fee of £88 to stop this going to court.
They often make such demands. Sometimes it is highly advantageous to take advantage of such an offer; e.g. where a legitimate crime has taken place which could result in more serious consequences (e.g. a fine and criminal record) if taken to Court. In other cases, such as yours, the only reason you would take up their offer is if you are just after the "easy" option. If you are after justice, I would not even consider it - as you have committed no crime and they are
way out of line here. But that's a choice for you to make.
I’ve wrote back to TiL asking what the next step of the process is, the exact charge, including the clause, and if they can send me my train tickets back that I bought at the end of my first leg of the return journey.
Did they retain your newly bought ticket? If so, they were under an obligation to issue you with a receipt.
TiL have stated that TfW operates a buy before you board policy.
They can operate whichever policy they like, but it cannot change the criminal law, which is that you are, quite understandably, innocent if you board a train without a ticket if there were no facilities at the station to buy one.
The only way I can think of of buying a ticket before boarding is to go to the conductor on the platform as he opens the train doors, prior to boarding and stating my journey and buying my ticket there on the platform.
A suggestion that only an organisation as incompetent or malicious (delete as per your views!) as TIL would make. It is only worth even bearing into consideration if there is scheduled to be an extended call for whatever period, and the guard is clearly not occupied by other, more important duties (such as assisting disabled passengers or dispatching the train).
I’m not sure they do this?
I would suggest that anyone trying to do this at a station like Wellington where there is usually a minimum-length dwell for the train would be told to get out of the way and to sort whatever the matter at hand is, once onboard.
The train I boarded was already 8 minutes late so doing this with not just me but everyone else who boarded would of delayed the train for longer.
Exactly. No-one can, with a straight face, say that is what you are obliged to do when the train company's facilities have failed. It is a preposterous suggestion (not for you to have made it, but for TIL to insist until they are blue in the face that you must buy before boarding,
no matter what).