Northern Rail - Court summons - Witness statement factually wrong

LONDONER

Hi there guys.

As the title suggest I've received a court summons due to 'fare evasion'.

To cut a long story short, I travelled from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, I went out of the lift on Fairfield street with my son as we were late for a football match and wanted to jump on the tram. The reason I had a ticket to Stockport was because I had previously intended to be picked up at Stockport station...the ticket was around £80 and I didn't really think about the need to upgrade etc for an extra 5 mins journey. My mistake completely!

The main issue with this is that the witness statement provided by the Revenue officer states that i told him i didn't have a ticket AT ALL and that I also told him I had travelled from Stockport...he actually took a photograph of my e-ticket on my phone which stated Euston to Stockport. I didn't once say those words to him, what I said was I'd travelled from Euston and had assumed my ticket would be ok.

Any tips or shall I just swallow my pride and pay the settlement offer?

agrinnall

As you haven't bothered to tell us what the settlement offer is it's pretty difficult to respond - it could be a fiver or ten grand, and the advice would obviously be different in each case.

alanrowell

Which fact is wrong - you didn't have a ticket for Stockport to Manchester Piccadilly.

glider3560

The correct thing to have done would be to get an excess fare (either from any rail station before starting the journey, or from the train manager on-board before reaching Stockport).

I assume your ticket was the Off Peak Single at £85.40? The excess fare would have been 50p. Much cheaper than the out of court settlement, probably.

The National Rail Conditions of Travel say you will be treated as having joined a train without a ticket if you travel further than the destination, so they are correct in saying you didn't hold a ticket.

Presumably you travelled with Virgin Trains, but are being dealt with by Northern Rail. This can happen where companies have reciprocal arrangements with each other. I wonder if Virgin will actually receive any of the revenue from the out of court settlement?

As a side note, I see Northern's revenue protection policy refers to "fixed penalty notices". I was of the understanding these are a reserved term for specific types of fine, which Northern cannot issue. What they are issuing is an out of court settlement.

Voyager2002

You were late... was this because your train was running late? So your lift from Stockport had already gone (so friend could get to the game on time)? Was there a conductor on the train?

It sounds as if you have a fairly stong case morally, but need the kind of advice you would get from a Rail Travel forum. And I do suggest that if your train was running late then you contact Virgin complaints and let them know the situation...

glider3560

Voyager2002 wrote: »

And I do suggest that if your train was running late then you contact Virgin complaints and let them know the situation...

Indeed. I would strongly recommend contacting Virgin Trains to let them know what Northern are doing on their behalf. Both companies have completely different approaches to revenue protection, so you may get somewhere with this.

Assuming your ticket was indeed the one I mentioned previously, make clear the difference in fare was only 50p.