iamsorry
New Member
Hi All - firstly thank you to the members and previous posters for sharing advice and their experience of what I will call the Stansted Express Horror. Clearly, I am not the only one but wanted to share my own experience in case it is helpful to those in the future (or least up to the point they start taking payment by Oyster)!
I travelled on the 18th of December from Liverpool Street to Stansted airport using my credit card - completely oblivious to the signs that for Stansted airport you must buy a paper ticket. I have no excuse other than I was cutting it very tight with a flight to catch in less than 2.5hrs, having just picked up my passport from the HMPO in Custom House. After boarding the train I then saw/heard the announcements that you must have a valid paper ticket if you are travelling through to Stansted airport, in my haste to rectify my mistake, I decided to purchase a ticket on the Trainline App from Tottenham Hale to Stansted but in error I applied my Friends and Family Rail Card to it.
On arriving at Stansted airport, I was stopped at the barriers by a ticket inspector who then questioned me under caution for using my railcard as the condition of a Friends and Family Railcard is that you must travel with a child which again I was also unaware of. Open to judgement but it seemed that my attempt to fix the situation by using the railcard and buying a ticket from Tottenham Hale had only made the situation far worse, as far as the the ticket inspector was concerned I was a criminal for mis-using the railcard. Fair that I had made a mistake and I was wrong for using the railcard which I am sorry for but the treatment was heavy handed in my opinion (again open to judgement). I was subsequently questioned for 40mins where she wrote and read out the entire interview - I was incredibly stressed out at this point as I was about to miss my flight, I burst out in tears to which the ticket inspector then softened up and asked if I had speedy boarding and that there would be no criminal prosecutions as long as I paid the fine. Either way it was one of the most unpleasant experiences that I have ever had in my life, I understand that rail firms need to protect revenues but at the same time proportionality should be applied, I was honest and cooperative, there is no need for the harsh treatment at all.
Thankfully I did make my flight - I was the last one to board. However, since returning from my trip, I have been constantly worried and had multiple sleepless nights panicking that I would be prosecuted and taken to court for this incident. But this forum has helped to find some solace and comfort from reading previous posts and advice on this topic which has spurred me to post on here to share my own experience.
Today I finally received a letter from Greater Anglia who have offered me a settlement of 100 + fare avoided of 10.05, so it seems that they did take into account the fact that I had tried to rectify situation by buying a ticket from Tottenham Hale but given the intense 40min interview, I really was unsure as to how this would have been perceived from their side and I felt this could have gone either way. To add more background, I am not a frequent train user and whilst I have the railcard, I have literally used it once. Given this experience, I will be avoiding Stansted Express at all costs and will not be renewing the railcard.
Thank you all for reading.
I travelled on the 18th of December from Liverpool Street to Stansted airport using my credit card - completely oblivious to the signs that for Stansted airport you must buy a paper ticket. I have no excuse other than I was cutting it very tight with a flight to catch in less than 2.5hrs, having just picked up my passport from the HMPO in Custom House. After boarding the train I then saw/heard the announcements that you must have a valid paper ticket if you are travelling through to Stansted airport, in my haste to rectify my mistake, I decided to purchase a ticket on the Trainline App from Tottenham Hale to Stansted but in error I applied my Friends and Family Rail Card to it.
On arriving at Stansted airport, I was stopped at the barriers by a ticket inspector who then questioned me under caution for using my railcard as the condition of a Friends and Family Railcard is that you must travel with a child which again I was also unaware of. Open to judgement but it seemed that my attempt to fix the situation by using the railcard and buying a ticket from Tottenham Hale had only made the situation far worse, as far as the the ticket inspector was concerned I was a criminal for mis-using the railcard. Fair that I had made a mistake and I was wrong for using the railcard which I am sorry for but the treatment was heavy handed in my opinion (again open to judgement). I was subsequently questioned for 40mins where she wrote and read out the entire interview - I was incredibly stressed out at this point as I was about to miss my flight, I burst out in tears to which the ticket inspector then softened up and asked if I had speedy boarding and that there would be no criminal prosecutions as long as I paid the fine. Either way it was one of the most unpleasant experiences that I have ever had in my life, I understand that rail firms need to protect revenues but at the same time proportionality should be applied, I was honest and cooperative, there is no need for the harsh treatment at all.
Thankfully I did make my flight - I was the last one to board. However, since returning from my trip, I have been constantly worried and had multiple sleepless nights panicking that I would be prosecuted and taken to court for this incident. But this forum has helped to find some solace and comfort from reading previous posts and advice on this topic which has spurred me to post on here to share my own experience.
Today I finally received a letter from Greater Anglia who have offered me a settlement of 100 + fare avoided of 10.05, so it seems that they did take into account the fact that I had tried to rectify situation by buying a ticket from Tottenham Hale but given the intense 40min interview, I really was unsure as to how this would have been perceived from their side and I felt this could have gone either way. To add more background, I am not a frequent train user and whilst I have the railcard, I have literally used it once. Given this experience, I will be avoiding Stansted Express at all costs and will not be renewing the railcard.
Thank you all for reading.
