South west trains and IRCAS

wealdroam

swale0 wrote: »

Just tried sending a PM, but nothing appearing in my sent items...

Will try on another browser shortly. Something doesn't want me to win this one!

Keep posting.
New members are restricted for a while, until you have a high enough postcount.
You can't be far of that point now... another half dozen posts perhaps.

swale0

Sadly I haven't really enough to say without spamming the forums (a great sin of course).

I hadn't realised there was a restriction upon who could private message. Can you tag people in posts?!

Pyxis

I'll have a go at sending him a PM for you.

wealdroam

swale0 wrote: »

Well I was going to, however I've now noticed it says I was travelling to Waddon, not Waterloo.

Given I have never even heard of Waddon, any possibility of getting out of this on a technicality I wonder?

With this information, it would be a good idea to seek advice here:

http://www.railforums.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=152

janiebquick

aleph_0 wrote: »

I think we're confusing two things. Sometime in the future contactless cards will essentially be able to act as oyster cards. Norbiton is in Zone 5. Currently though, contactless cards can only act as oyster cards for bus journeys, and for tube/rail *if* you are taking part in the trial.

So, I think the OP tried to tap in with his contactless card, but it didn't work. Regardless of whether he's taking part in the trial, the fact the tap-in didn't work correctly means the OP didn't have a valid ticket. Thus, he was given a (legitimate) Penalty Fare for his mistake.

swale0, you should be aware that if you don't pay the Penalty Fare, the train company might decide to go down the prosecution route. So this could get worse.

I have sympathy, since the situation appears to be a result of bad luck/innocent mistakes (paying by post probably wasn't the best decision with hindsight, since you've no proof of postage; contacting SWT CS rather than IRCAS). Others might have more useful advice, but if I was in your shoes, I would pay the £90. After paying, you might want to take the whole thing up with SWT, but I wouldn't expect any of the money to come back.

The covered readers princeofpounds is talking about is for the ITSO smartcard scheme, where you can buy/load multiple tickets onto a smartcard. The DfT, in their wisdom, said SWT had to install the readers, and run a trial, but then things stagnated.

Thank you for your explanation. I hadn't a clue what the OP was talking about.

swale0

Posted on the RailUK forums, thanks guys, and apologies for the confusing original post!