questions about didn't show railcard then received letter.

[yyyli]

Hi all, I was on a train from Birmingham to another city in February and was checked by a staff member, I was new to the UK and didn't know the exact rules of the railcard, so I showed my student card and id, the staff member explained the rules of the railcard to me and gave me a new ticket and asked me to buy a new return ticket, I thought there was nothing else to do. I then bought a railcard immediately, maybe I didn't fully understand what he was saying at the time, I am not a native English speaker, then I received a letter from a third party company til, like most people on this forum, asking me to explain this, I emailed a photo of the card and apologised sincerely, I sent several emails and finally I received a letter. I would like to ask if this is the end of the matter, but the letter mentions a subpoena and I'm a bit scared, do I just pay the fee and I'll be fine, do I still need to write an email in response?
Thank you all so much!
I really feel that the other solutions I have seen on this forum for similar things have been very helpful!
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me too

 

[skyhigh]

If you pay the amount they're asking that is the end of the matter.

do I still need to write an email in response?

You can email confirming you've paid if you wish but you don't need to say anything other than that.

 

[yyyli]

If you pay the amount they're asking that is the end of the matter.


You can email confirming you've paid if you wish but you don't need to say anything other than that.

thank you !!

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all, I was on a train from Birmingham to another city in February and was checked by a staff member, I was new to the UK and didn't know the exact rules of the railcard, so I showed my student card and id, the staff member explained the rules of the railcard to me and gave me a new ticket and asked me to buy a new return ticket, I thought there was nothing else to do. I then bought a railcard immediately, maybe I didn't fully understand what he was saying at the time, I am not a native English speaker, then I received a letter from a third party company til, like most people on this forum, asking me to explain this, I emailed a photo of the card and apologised sincerely, I sent several emails and finally I received a letter. I would like to ask if this is the end of the matter, but the letter mentions a subpoena and I'm a bit scared, do I just pay the fee and I'll be fine, do I still need to write an email in response?
Thank you all so much!
I really feel that the other solutions I have seen on this forum for similar things have been very helpful!
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me too

Basically, in the UK (unlike other countries that offer discounts to passengers just by virtue of an age group they are in - apart from people under 16 who get child rate fares) you need to have bought the railcard, and have it on you to show, before you make a train journey. Just having student ID is of no relevance.

So it sounds like you bought the railcard after buying the ticket and boarding the trains and then being spoken to about this, but presumably you had a ticket that was issued with a railcard discount. By not having that railcard purchased before travel you committed a ticketing offence, which in England is technically a criminal offence that the railway company can prosecute you for in a court. TIL is a company that acts for some railway companies in this matter.

It sounds like they are offering you a 'settlement' that will resolve things without court action being taken against you- so best thing to do is to pay that as others have advised.

Of course going forwards you can now buy tickets with the railcard discount for future train travel - but always remember to have both the valid railcard and the ticket with you to show staff on the journey.

Hope this explanation is of help - do post any other questions if any of this is unclear.

 

[yyyli]

Basically, in the UK (unlike other countries that offer discounts to passengers just by virtue of an age group they are in - apart from people under 16 who get child rate fares) you need to have bought the railcard, and have it on you to show, before you make a train journey. Just having student ID is of no relevance.

So it sounds like you bought the railcard after buying the ticket and boarding the trains and then being spoken to about this, but presumably you had a ticket that was issued with a railcard discount. By not having that railcard purchased before travel you committed a ticketing offence, which in England is technically a criminal offence that the railway company can prosecute you for in a court. TIL is a company that acts for some railway companies in this matter.

It sounds like they are offering you a 'settlement' that will resolve things without court action being taken against you- so best thing to do is to pay that as others have advised.

Of course going forwards you can now buy tickets with the railcard discount for future train travel - but always remember to have both the valid railcard and the ticket with you to show staff on the journey.

Hope this explanation is of help - do post any other questions if any of this is unclear.

Thank you for your reply, I totally understand it right now, yes, I buy the digital railcard so I can show that on my phone, before I write the email, I read a lot of solutions on this forum, thats really helpful. Thank you again!

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you for your reply, I totally understand it right now, yes, I buy the digital railcard so I can show that on my phone, before I write the email, I read a lot of solutions on this forum, thats really helpful. Thank you again!

Good stuff - I thought that would be the case but just wanted to check you were now familiar with the UK 'system' - worth bearing in mind that as they have 'caught' you due to that error you will now be on the railway system as having had this settlement I suspect, so a future problem might result in them wanting to take worse action - so take care on all future travel to have a valid ticket with you to a valid any chance of that - but I'm sure you will do that now anyway.

Of course head back here if you need further advice.

 

[reb0118]

Did you purchase a new ticket from the on train staff? Whilst that doesn't, in & of itself, preclude further action it usually does. On train staff have the ability to regulate errors by selling a new ticket amongst other options & that usually ends matters there.

 

[yyyli]

Did you purchase a new ticket from the on train staff? Whilst that doesn't, in & of itself, preclude further action it usually does. On train staff have the ability to regulate errors by selling a new ticket amongst other options & that usually ends matters there.

Hi, thanks for your reply, I had an open return ticket from Birmingham to Leeds which was checked on the train to Leeds, I thought he would inform me to pay (full price no discount) but no, he just recorded our conversation in his notebook and then took a photo of the QR code of my e-ticket and gave me a paper ticket to Leeds and told me to buy a return ticket when I arrived at the station.

 

[reb0118]

It appears that you were probably issued with a zero fare ticket to complete your journey

 

[jumble]

Hi all, I was on a train from Birmingham to another city in February and was checked by a staff member, I was new to the UK and didn't know the exact rules of the railcard, so I showed my student card and id, the staff member explained the rules of the railcard to me and gave me a new ticket and asked me to buy a new return ticket, I thought there was nothing else to do. I then bought a railcard immediately, maybe I didn't fully understand what he was saying at the time, I am not a native English speaker, then I received a letter from a third party company til, like most people on this forum, asking me to explain this, I emailed a photo of the card and apologised sincerely, I sent several emails and finally I received a letter. I would like to ask if this is the end of the matter, but the letter mentions a subpoena and I'm a bit scared, do I just pay the fee and I'll be fine, do I still need to write an email in response?
Thank you all so much!
I really feel that the other solutions I have seen on this forum for similar things have been very helpful!
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me too

Hi
Can I ask if you did purchase a new full price return ticket as advised by the member of staff

 

[yyyli]

Hi
Can I ask if you did purchase a new full price return ticket as advised by the member of staff

hi thank you for your reply, actually no, I stay at my friend' s house for several days.

 

[jumble]

hi thank you for your reply, actually no, I stay at my friend' s house for several days.

Thanks
I think it would be very unkind for them to take further action if a member of staff had given you the impression that the situation would be regularised if you bought the full price return.
Unfortunatly you decided not to regularise the situation and have probably incured extra costs as a result of this failure

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks
I think it would be very unkind for them to take further action if a member of staff had given you the impression that the situation would be regularised if you bought the full price return.
Unfortunatly you decided not to regularise the situation and have probably incured extra costs as a result of this failure

I don't agree with this analysis - surely the OP will, when they choose / chose to return to Birmingham have bought a new ticket with a railcard discount - or be using the rtn portion of their original ticket with a railcard discount - that then becomes valid as they had bought a Railcard before that journey - or am I missing something?

Whatever they thought or understood / misunderstood the staff on board to have said when the ticket was checked - They were presumably reported to revenue protection for enforcement action by the on board staff member who spoke to them - hence the letter they received later on. I can not see that buy going to buy a rtn ticket on arrival at Leeds would have prevented them receiving that letter.

 

[yyyli]

Thanks
I think it would be very unkind for them to take further action if a member of staff had given you the impression that the situation would be regularised if you bought the full price return.
Unfortunatly you decided not to regularise the situation and have probably incured extra costs as a result of this failure

Hi thank you for your reply, I actually didn't quite understand the situation, or maybe I didn't fully understand what he meant, but it was a good lesson for me and I won't make similar mistakes in the future, for example I didn't know at first about peak and off-peak tickets and the fact that there are different train companies and lines in the UK (I need to be aware of the reminders in the app about what company's trains I can only take). I will learn more about this.

I don't agree with this analysis - surely the OP will, when they choose / chose to return to Birmingham have bought a new ticket with a railcard discount - or be using the rtn portion of their original ticket with a railcard discount - that then becomes valid as they had bought a Railcard before that journey - or am I missing something?

Whatever they thought or understood / misunderstood the staff on board to have said when the ticket was checked - They were presumably reported to revenue protection for enforcement action by the on board staff member who spoke to them - hence the letter they received later on.

Thanks for the reply, that's what confused me, he didn't fine me immediately or say anything about sending me a letter, so I didn't know about it until almost after the date mentioned in the letter had expired (I didn't check my inbox in time), but I wrote an email immediately to reply to the matter.

Regarding the fact that I bought the railcard immediately after being spoken to. I don't know if the return ticket I had bought was still valid, but I didn't pay any attention to it as I wasn't going back that day and therefore didn't need the ticket.（I usually buy ticket on trainline as guest）

 

[jumble]

I don't agree with this analysis - surely the OP will, when they choose / chose to return to Birmingham have bought a new ticket with a railcard discount - or be using the rtn portion of their original ticket with a railcard discount - that then becomes valid as they had bought a Railcard before that journey - or am I missing something?

Whatever they thought or understood / misunderstood the staff on board to have said when the ticket was checked - They were presumably reported to revenue protection for enforcement action by the on board staff member who spoke to them - hence the letter they received later on. I can not see that buy going to buy a rtn ticket on arrival at Leeds would have prevented them receiving that letter.

It depends on whether one interprets "buy a new return ticket" to mean
When you get to where you were going go to the ticket office and buy a full price ticket to cover your journey today as your ticket does not cover it
Or the RPI took the ticket and told the OP to buy a new ticket for the return or let the OP keep the ticket with a view to them buying a railcard before the return trip
I think you are probably right in leaning towards the second interpretation as being more likely
However the OP has lost out in this case as they had a ticket confiscated whose retrun value could ligitimatly be valid in the future

 

[WesternLancer]

It depends on whether one interprets "buy a new return ticket" to mean
When you get to where you were going go to the ticket office and buy a full price ticket to cover your journey today as your ticket does not cover it
Or the RPI took the ticket and told the OP to buy a new ticket for the return or let the OP keep the ticket with a view to them buying a railcard before the return trip
I think you are probably right in leaning towards the second interpretation as being more likely
However the OP has lost out in this case as they had a ticket confiscated whose retrun value could ligitimatly be valid in the future

Thanks - I see what you mean now.