Expired 16-25 railcard.

[leroy_mcpaul]

Hi all,

I recently got caught on a Thameslink train using a ticket with a 16-25 railcard which was about 4 months out it date.

I apologised to the person checking tickets, and they issued me with a penalty fare notice which I paid the next day.

I just wanted to know if there is a chance that they will investigate further and see I have made other journeys earlier this year using my expired railcard, or whether them issuing a penalty fare notice was the end of the matter.

I did also turn 26 in between my 16-25 railcard expiring and being caught the other day. I have now bought a 26-30 railcard.

I understand this is all my own doing and is very stupid of me and have definitely learnt my lesson going forward.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all,

I recently got caught on a Thameslink train using a ticket with a 16-25 railcard which expired 7 December 2023 so was about 4 months out it date.

I apologised to the person checking tickets, and they issued me with a penalty fare notice which I paid the next day.

I just wanted to know if there is a chance that they will investigate further and see I have made other journeys earlier this year using my expired railcard, or whether them issuing a penalty fare notice was the end of the matter.

I did also turn 26 in between my 16-25 railcard expiring and being caught the other day. I have now bought a 26-30 railcard.

I understand this is all my own doing and is very stupid of me and have definitely learnt my lesson going forward.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Getting a Penalty Fare for this is a good outcome for you - many cases on here do involve people being reported for investigation which almost certainly guarantees a check on previous ticketing and a much bigger financial cost to you.

It's less likely with a Penalty Fare but it could be possible that they could dig into this ref past travel. No way of knowing for certain.

This means you should keep an eye on post / e-mails and spam e-mails for a while to see if there is any follow-up - say for 6 months, so make sure hard copy post can be obtained - if they took your postal address - or if you have an online ticket buying account make sure the personal details registered with it are up to date.

It's much more in your interest to hear from them and act on it with help from this forum than it is to ignore stuff which can then escalate in a way that is not helpful to you and ends up costing more time and money to sort out.

But with luck the Penalty Fare will be the end of it.

By the way - if your user name is your real name it may be worth asking the mods to let you change it.

 

[Haywain]

I just wanted to know if there is a chance that they will investigate further and see I have made other journeys earlier this year using my expired railcard,

I would say that it is possible, but it is unlikely to happen.

 

[leroy_mcpaul]

Thanks both of you for your reply.

So essentially I may have got lucky on this occasion.

@WesternLancer no, it is not my real name.

If I do receive further communication from Thameslink can I post it in here?

P.S. @Haywain I like the picture

 

[Mcr Warrior]

If I do receive further communication from Thameslink can I post it in here?

Yes, a photo of same would indeed be useful, but please be sure to cover up or otherwise obscure your (real) name and address and case reference number, if any.