Bolton train passenger given criminal record over £1.60 mix-up

One such passenger is Cerys Piper.

The 23-year-old, who lives in Westhoughton, said she was not even aware she had been taken to Manchester Magistrates’ Court until The Bolton News contacted her.

On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, Cerys travelled from Daisy Hill station to her job as a sales agent in Wigan using an "Anytime Day Return" ticket she says she purchased from the station’s ticket office.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Cerys said: “I’d gone to the lady at Daisy Hill train station and presented my 16-25, she took it and said "yeah that’s fine" and handed me my ticket.

“I got on the train and then I was told my ticket was invalid and that I couldn’t use it.”

The issue came about because of an obscure rule relating to her 16-25 Railcard.

A Railcard gives the ticketholder one-third off of the full-price fare – in Cerys’ case, she received £1.60 off of the £4.80 ticket price.

However, according to the terms and conditions of the Railcard, the discount cannot be used with "anytime" or "off-peak" tickets under the value of £12 before 10am – meaning her ticket was declared invalid.

Now, she has a court judgment against her for £462.80.

Cerys said: “I’ve emailed them, and I’ve told them that they need to investigate it – I hadn’t had a letter to go to court or anything like that.

“They might be able to prove that they have sent me a letter, but I’ve not seen one – sometimes the letters at my address I might not even get, I don’t know where they go, but there’s multiple people at that address.

“If I’d have got one I’m sure I’d have been told about it.”

Cerys says she is still paying back the fine to her mum, who helped her out.

Only earning £11.44 per hour in her job, Cerys said she had been treated "horrifically" by the rail company and that the experience of getting on the train will "never be the same".

She added: “It’s just such sourness now getting on the train, because I used to love it, and it is kind of therapeutic.

“It shows you really do mean nothing to them, at all, to do that, but it is what it is.”

Cerys isn’t the only person who has been prosecuted or threatened with prosecution for this error.

When The Bolton News investigated, others had also been fined more than £400 for similar infractions.

On Northern’s own mobile app, open tickets specifically bought for trains before 10am will not offer a Railcard discount.

However, if a person searches for a ticket on a train after 10am, they are then given the option of buying an "Anytime" ticket with a Railcard discount – even if the cost is below £12, and therefore invalid before 10am with a 16-25 or 26-30 Railcard.

Despite this, there is no mention of this restriction when buying the ticket. Indeed, Northern’s own app says the ticket is valid to "travel any time of day"- and those who choose to tap to read the ticket’s restrictions only see a message describing it as a "flexible ticket with no time restrictions on when you can travel" with "normal railcard and child discounts available".

Even more confusingly, the 10am restriction does not apply in the months of July and August for those with a 16-25 Railcard.

One person who was caught out by this distinction is Sam Williamson.

The 22-year-old Oxford University graduate, who lives in Charlesworth, Derbyshire, booked a ticket from Broadbottom to Manchester on Thursday, September 5 as he normally did, as part of a wider journey to London from Manchester, for which he already had a ticket.

Sam Williamson has been threatened with prosecution by Northern (Image: Sam Williamson)

Not seeing a Railcard discount available for the journey, Sam assumed the app had glitched and found an "Anytime" ticket listed under a later train journey, with a Railcard discount available. He bought the ticket, but found out on board the train that he’d fallen foul of the 10am rule – which was not in force just days prior.

On board the train, Sam says he offered to pay for a new ticket – but he was told he would not be allowed.

Now, Northern has sent him a letter threatening him with prosecution.

Speaking to The Bolton News, Sam said: “I go on the app, I see that the immediate train I wanted to get on, the Railcard discount does not seem to have applied. I basically scrolled down until I hit the cheapest one, which happened to be the 10.29.

“I’ll admit, it was a user error on my part, I was obviously in violation of these Railcard Ts and Cs, but it feels anti-consumer in my books.

“It feels like it’s designed to catch you out, and it does not make it particularly clear on the app why Railcard discounts are not available.

“As we all know, the Northern app does have its moments sometimes, you’ll be unable to book a train that’s yet to depart or something like that. When you’re kind of in a rush and you’ve got another journey you need to make, you just assume it’s the simplest solution and it’s the app playing up – not that it’s this particular rule.”

Sam Williamson regularly travels on the train (Image: Sam Williamson)

Those who have been successfully prosecuted by Northern for this infraction have been accused of breaching the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 – a law which pre-dates the invention of Railcards by 85 years and the invention of smartphones by 120 years.

The law specifically states that those who travel without having paid their fare ‘and with intent to avoid payment thereof’ are liable for a fine or even imprisonment.

Additionally, the National Rail Conditions of Travel states that those using a time-restricted ticket that is correctly dated but invalid for the service on which they are travelling should only be charged the difference between the fare that they have paid and the lowest price ticket for the train they are using.

We asked Northern rail if Cerys’ criminal conviction could be overturned, whether any test is applied when deciding to prosecute, and why she had not been given the opportunity to pay the difference in fares.

We additionally asked Northern why it advertises "anytime" tickets as being valid to "travel any time of day", even when a Railcard discount is applied.

A Northern spokesperson said: “As with all train operators across the UK, everyone has a duty to buy a valid ticket or obtain a ‘promise to pay’ voucher before they board the train and be able to present it to the conductor or revenue protection officer during a ticket inspection.

“The overwhelming majority of our customers – upwards of 96 per cent - do just that.”

Northern said it is in contact with Samuel Williamson and that it would be "inappropriate to comment further at this stage".

The Bolton News has uncovered a number of recent cases of Northern passengers being prosecuted for invalid use of a Railcard.

These include a 26-year-old man who was fined £462.30 over a £4.30 underpayment for a journey from Prescot, Merseyside, to Liverpool Lime Street.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Ticketing has become far too complicated, which is why we have committed to simplifying it for customers, as part of the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.

"We expect Northern to ensure their policy on ticketing is clear and fair for passengers at all times and have instructed the operator to review the details of these cases urgently.”