A man who was fined by Merseyrail when he said he was unable to buy a ticket is calling for changes after battling the rail operator through the courts for 16 months.
Thomas Meadows, 37, from Birkenhead, was first fined after getting on a train from Birkenhead North to Rock Ferry on October 5, 2020.
He said he had gone to buy a ticket from the station but said there was no staff member to purchase one from at the desk - and said a sign was in place directing people to pay at their destination instead.
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But during the journey, Mr Meadows said he was asked for a ticket by enforcement staff on the train and when he could not produce one, was asked to leave the service at Birkenhead Central.
He said he explained the situation to the staff, but was told he would be receiving a fine and asked for his name and address.
He was told to expect a fine to arrive in the post, but said nothing arrived.
When he followed up the situation with emails to Merseyrail, the firm said he had been sent letters, but it later emerged that they had gone to the wrong address.
The ECHO has seen further correspondence between Mr Meadows and Merseyrail, in which he asks for a court date, with Merseyrail stating on March 10 that a date had been set for May 27, with a summons to be sent 'in the coming weeks.'
But he emailed again claiming the summons was sent to him on May 15, 40 days after the last point he could enter a plea.
He insisted he wanted his day in court and the ability to clear his name and to 'prove that the process is flawed.'
Eventually, his case did make it to court, where magistrates accepted he had not received the summons on time.
In January, Mr Meadows went back to court and was told that his case had been thrown out.
He says he has recently received cheques in the post, reversing his fine.
He told the ECHO: "I don't want this to happen to other people, I know lots of other people who have been through similar.
"Some systems are flawed but I felt like they were basically called a liar and I couldn't take that.
"I wanted to stand up for what I thought was right, for me and for other people."
"I'm happy with the result - if I didn't fight this I would be out of pocket and it just wouldn't be right, but I would still like an apology from Merseyrail."
Mr Meadows accepts that he refused to take paperwork that was handed to him when he was fined - he said this is because he did not think it was right and suggested he should be arrested instead.
It is understood that because of this, Merseyrail were unable to gather the CCTV of the incident and corroborate the situation he had described at the ticket office.
Suzanne Grant, Commercial Director at Merseyrail said: "Our passengers tell us that they expect us to have robust processes in place to prevent ticketless travel.
"Whilst we cannot comment on individual cases, in circumstances where a ticket office is closed clear signage is displayed advising passengers of what they should do. If a customer is subsequently stopped by our revenue protection teams, the team will contact the station in question to verify whether they were open or closed.
"Anyone issued with a penalty is offered written information about how to appeal to the Independent Penalty Fares Appeals Service, who can review the circumstances of the penalty to ensure that it has been issued appropriately."
"If anyone is issued with a penalty they wish to challenge, I would encourage them to appeal within the timeframes outlined in the information provided."
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