Ticket checks and revenue protection

If you do get on a train without a ticket, then you may be liable to pay a penalty fare notice or reported for prosecution. If staff do choose to sell a ticket, then no discounts will apply when you purchase your ticket from the Guard or Revenue Protection staff except in the circumstances below.

However, you can buy the ticket you wanted using any Railcard discounts that apply if there is no way of buying the ticket you want at the station where you start your journey; if

• the station has no ticket office or TVM;
• the ticket office is closed;
• the TVM isn’t working or can’t issue the ticket you want;
• you cannot use both the ticket office or ticket machine as a result of a disability; or
• you’re entitled to concessionary fares without a Railcard, for example, if you are a
  permanent wheelchair user.
• In certain circumstances a member of staff may give you permission to travel without having purchased a ticket. (In these situations where a person appears to be acting for or on behalf of a train Operator, it is advisable for a customer to make a note of the person who has indicated travel is allowed, such as name, physical description and where on the station they are located (outside ticket office, at the gates etc.) This can assist with later verification or appeal.) This may include if you had to queue a long time for a ticket, if there are problems with a ticket machine, if there is disruption to the service.

If you get on our trains with a ticket that should be accompanied by a discount card (for example, a Senior Railcard) and you are unable to present the discount card, you will be charged the full fare or issued an Unpaid Fare Notice or Penalty Fare, if you do not have the means to pay at the time.

However, if this is the first time you have forgotten your railcard, we will refund the excess amount or void the Unpaid Fare Notice. You can apply for a refund or to void an Unpaid Fare Notice through the form on our train tickets refund page.

If you have forgotten your season ticket or photocard, you must buy a ticket to cover your journey before getting on your train. If you get on the train and realise that you haven’t got your season ticket or photocard, you need to speak to a member of staff as soon as possible. You may be sold a ticket for your journey.

You may claim a refund of the additional tickets purchased from the retailer you purchased your season ticket from. If this was at a South Western Railway station or our website you can request a refund from one of our ticket offices. There are some restrictions on when refunds may be given, which can be found on our train ticket refunds page.

It is the ticket, and no other documentation (for example a receipt), which gives you the right to travel. You will have to buy a new one or we will give you an Unpaid Fare Notice or Penalty Fare.

You then have 21 days to find your lost ticket and show it to us and apply for a refund or appeal the Unpaid Fare Notice or Penalty Fare Notice. The appeal process for this is clearly written on both the Unpaid Fare Notice or Penalty Fare Notice issued.

This is a travel document showing details of the journey and the fare which should have been paid.

This gives you permission to travel and pay the fare within 21 days. You will be given a copy of this and it summarises all the relevant information. The member of staff who issues this will also explain this in more detail, including your right to appeal, and answer any questions you may have.

You have 21 days from the date of issue to pay an Unpaid Fare Notice. if you don’t pay in 21 days, we’ll add an admin charge to the amount you need to pay – unless you’ve submitted an appeal. We will send you a reminder after 21 days and give you another 14 days to pay. If you don’t pay this Unpaid Fare Notice and admin charges after the extra 14 days, you can expect to get a summons to go to court.

Details of the appeals bodies for Unpaid Fares Notices can be found on the notice you were issued.

We operate a Penalty Fare scheme across our network, which is compliant with The Railways (Penalty Fare) Regulations 2018 (amended 2022). Which means that if either an open ticket office or ticket vending machine (TVM) are provided at the station that you start your journey, you need to ensure you purchase your ticket prior to boarding the train. It is your responsibility to arrive at the station with enough time to purchase your ticket.

If you travel in a Penalty Fare area from a penalty fare designated station and cannot show a valid ticket, we may issue you a Penalty Fare Notice. A Penalty Fare is £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable for your intended journey. However, if it is paid within 21 days, the Penalty Fare is reduced to £50 plus the price of the single fare applicable.

You have 21 days beginning with the day following the date of issue to pay a Penalty Fare Notice. We will send you a reminder after 21 days after the day of issue and give you another 14 days to pay. If your Penalty Fare remains unpaid you can expect to get a court summons.

Although we issue and manage Penalty Fare Notices, the appeals service is external and independent from South Western Railways and managed by Penalty Services Limited (PSL). This ensures that all appeals are dealt with by an independent third party. This means that appeals are dealt with impartially and fairly.

If you want to appeal against the Penalty Fare Notice, you need to send a written appeal to PSL within 21 days from the day after you were issued the notice. It should include details of:

• why you couldn’t show a valid ticket or authority to travel when we asked you
• the station you started your journey
• the time and date of your trip
• any other information relevant to your appeal

This will “stop the clock” on this matter until the appeal outcome has been decided. If an appeal is not upheld, you will have 14 days to re-appeal or pay after an appeal has been concluded. It must be noted however, if a PFN is issued and appealed and the appeal concluded within the first week after it was issued, you will have until the end of the 21 days to pay which may be more than 14 days. If you fail to pay, you may also have to pay administration fees.

PSL manage the 3 stages of the appeal process, however if the appeal progresses to a third stage, this is heard by an independent appeals panel, and their details will be given to you at that time.

If you do not have a valid ticket for the journey, you are making or have made, and we have good reason to suspect that you have committed an offence, we can question you to find out the facts of the matter. We may caution you, in accordance with the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 in some circumstances. This can be done by revenue protection staff – who will be clearly identified by their warrant badge with their name and identification number visible. An MG11 will then be submitted for consideration of prosecutors.

You will not be under arrest, and you are free to leave at any point, but if you fail to provide a valid name and address to an officer of the railway, it is a criminal offence.

The member of staff will make it clear who they are and how things will progress. Revenue protection staff will question you appropriately about the journey and may make notes on that interview on a Ticket Inspection and Prosecution System (TIPS) App.

They can withdraw your ticket or any other documents to support that ticket if we suspect it is not valid and will send these with our report on the incident.

After the interview the TIPS system will send the report on the incident to the Prosecutions Department, who will then correspond with you regarding the matter.

We realise that a prosecution can have a serious effect on your personal and professional life. We will still try to avoid taking you to court and we may send you an offer to settle out of court. This usually means asking you to settle with an amount that covers our costs and the fare you owe. We will give you 21 days to accept our offer with instructions on how to settle the matter out of court and pay the amount we have asked for.

If we decide to take this matter to court for criminal prosecution, this will be handled by our prosecutors.

You’ll get a court summons about two weeks before the date of your hearing in court.

This will include:

• the details of the court hearing
• a copy of the evidence we’ll rely on for the court hearing
• forms you can send to the court to tell them how you plead to the charges if you can’t go, or don’t want to go, to the hearing.

If you’re found guilty of fare evasion in court, you’ll get a sentence from the magistrates. The sentence you get depends on the offence and your explanation of what happened, as well as the magistrates.

If you’re found guilty under the Railway Byelaws, you may have to pay a fine of up to £1,000. If you’re found guilty under the Regulation of Railways Act, you may have to pay a fine of up to £1,000 and/or go to jail for three months. Please remember, these are the maximum sentences you can get. You may also have to pay other charges if they apply to your offence - for example, a Victim Surcharge.

You may have to pay our costs. Whenever we go to court, we claim to recover our costs. We claim compensation for the unpaid rail fare wherever possible, as well as the cost of going to court. This is to make sure our fare-paying customers are not affected by the costs of tackling fare evasion. If our claim is successful, the court may ask you to pay our costs.

If, at any stage of any of the procedures outlined above, you are not satisfied with the behaviours of any member of railway staff, you should contact our Customer Service team.

Members of the Customer Service team can only deal with complaints about behaviour and cannot comment on the details of any case if we suspect you tried to avoid paying your train fare.

If you are unhappy with the response, you may want to refer your case in writing to the Rail Ombudsman. They are an independent government organisation set up by Parliament to consider unresolved complaints between customers and rail operators and which may be able to take the matter up. Their contact details are:

Telephone: 0330 094 0362
Online: railombudsman.org
Post:
Rail Ombudsman
1st Floor, Premier House
Argyle Way
Stevenage, Hertfordshire
SG1 2AD