Hundreds of illicit train tickets for sale on eBay and Facebook’s Marketplace – and buying one could land you with a £1,000 fine
If you're caught using an invalid ticket then you could end up being fined
TRAIN passengers desperate to claw back cash spent on rail tickets they can no longer use are at risk of being slapped with hefty fines, The Sun Online can reveal.
We found hundreds of illicit train tickets for sale on Facebook’s Marketplace, eBay and classified website Viva Street.
But rules set by train firms mean that tickets cannot be transferred or resold and if passengers are caught using an invalid ticket they could face a £1,000 fine or evenprosecution.
The rules vary depending on the route and train company but passengers could face buying a new ticket at the full fare, sometimes costing hundreds of pounds.
They may also be charged twice the single fare to the next station or £50, whichever is the larger of the two.
Failure to pay this fine could result in a court summons and if found guilty a person would have to pay a fine of up to £1,000.
There are also other dangers for buyers purchasing fake tickets from these websites.
Consumers may find that the tickets are fake and the penalties for fraud are much more severe.
For example, in 2015, a 44-year-old man was ordered to pay £17,000 or go to prison for a year after he was caught faking a first class ticket.
For sellers, the danger is that the buyer will not cough up the cash.
Our investigation found a website called TransferTravel.com claiming to be the number one travel marketplace for unused tickets. It has over 50 tickets to varying UK destinations for sale.
We also found a total of 41 tickets on Facebook's Marketplace, 79 listings on eBay and 182 advertisements on VivaStreet.com.
Under National Rail’s conditions of travel passengers can get a refund but they have to pay a £10 admin fee to claim back cash.
HOW TO GET A REFUND ON YOUR TRAIN TICKET
SOME train tickets such as Advance fares are not refundable.
But it is possible to get a refund on some tickets. We explain.
Under the National Rail Conditions of Travel, if your train is cancelled or delayed and you choose not to travel, you are entitled to a full refund.
Other tickets, such as flexible or open fares are also refundable but you may have to pay a fee or up to £10 to get your money back.
To get refund a ticket you must return it to the retailer you bought it from (including the online third-party website such as TheTrainline or RedSpottedHankey), stating the date and time you intended to travel.
And some tickets, such as Advance fares are not refundable at all.
Yesterday, it was revealed that train passengers face a whopping rise of 3.6 per cent from January to ticket prices.
In November, the government announced plans to overhaul the way tickets are sold to customers and the industry for “unfairness, complexity and a lack of transparency”.
A trial of the new system started on selected routes, including some Cross Country, Virgin Trains’ east and west coast service, in May.
HIDDEN FARES How to buy cheap train tickets and avoid rail fare increases
It is part of an overhaul of how train companies sell tickets to passengers.
In November last year, passengers were warned over fake train tickets by fraudsters who claim that they are doing it because rail travel is so expensive.
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies and Network Rail, said: “We advise our customers to buy their ticket through a train company or licensed third party retailer.
“By doing so, people know they are paying the right price for their journey and may have other protections, like automatic compensation for delays on some journeys, access to the latest fares and notification about any changes to their journey.”
We advise our customers to buy their ticket through a train company or licensed third party retailer
Rail Delivery Group
“We know that sometimes our customers’ circumstances may change and that they might need to change their journey plans, which they can do for a small fee. This practice is common in many sectors.“
A spokesman from transport watchdog, Transport Focus, said: “The condition of travel prohibits transferring a ticket, if caught then an operator could take action.”
It also added that it was unaware of the existence of a site offering a service to resell tickets.
Listings for train tickets being sold on eBay and Facebook are being removed, the website's confirmed.
A spokesperson for TransferTravel.com told the Sun Online that it "does not own the tickets sold on the site, therefore, we do not require a license to sell tickets."
It added: "The website is a platform that allows peers to buy and sell unwanted, pre-booked travel tickets.
"The company’s sole purpose is to provide a solution to the problem of unwanted, wasted, travel plans.";
The Sun Online also Viva Street for a comment.
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