Transport User Voice – October 2019 – Case study

30 September 2019

The case of half a missing Railcard

Mr S was travelling between Paddington and Henley-on-Thames. When the tickets were checked, it turned out he only had the photocard part of his 16-25 Railcard.

The inspector advised the part that identifies the Railcard’s expiry date was missing. Mr S said he was unaware that the 16-25 Railcard came in two parts and was sure he had not been issued the second part when purchasing the railcard from Clapham Junction. The passenger was issued reported for prosecution and Mr S then received a pre-court settlement offer of £173.20 from Great Western Railway (GWR).

Mr S wrote to GWR to appeal this and it requested a copy of his railcard, showing its validity. Mr S was unable to provide this as he was not issued a second part at the station. He could only provide a copy of the email stating his Railcard was due to expire so GWR rejected his appeal. Mr S then contacted Transport Focus as he was unsure of what to do next.

When reviewing the case, we asked Mr S for evidence of payment for the Railcard itself. However, Mr S had paid for the Railcard with cash so had no record of the payment on his bank statements. When Mr S informed Transport Focus of this, we then contacted RDG to ask if any information was held on the Railcard and provided a copy of the photocard. Luckily the Rail Delivery Group was able find evidence that the card was purchased from Clapham Junction because Mr S had registered it online.

This information was then passed to GWR’s prosecutions team who accepted the evidence and closed the case. Mr S was thrilled with the outcome and thanked Transport Focus for our help.

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