Okay. Thank you. So I should file an appeal? And then pay £35.90 whilst the appeal is in process? The reason we booked in advance was because my mother was going to America, and she was paying for it, so we decided it would be easy to have the tickets beforehand. Obviously not!

Hello, yes I thought it might be. Can't believe I didn't notice! If you do travel "off-route" on a restricted walk-up ticket, you need to be able to pay the excess fare on demand, and failure to do so puts you in hot water. How do you know this? In the NRCOC document, it doesn't mention you have to pay on demand. I believe that you were entitled to a credit of the fare already paid- so the £30.20 (how exactly were you charged this- a SDS via Southampton looks to be £28.30, and the corresponding SDR is £30.60?) should be deducted from the 'Any Permitted' SDS to give a final figure of £34. I bought the ticket in advance, online. It cost £30.60. However, I presume that the extra c. £30 charged on top must constitute an adminstration fee, in which case, you would probably be best advised to pay it, rather than risk prosecution. http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/4694/trainfine11111111.jpg Here is the fine. It doesn't mention administration. It is made out to my mother, but only because that was the name I wrote when he asked me for my name (for two reasons: firstly, I got confused because he mentioned parent/guardian name so I put my mum's...then after he asked me again for my mum and dad's name I was too scared to tell him I had made a mistake. And she bought the tickets. ) Also he spelt my surname wrong, despite me writing "Findlay" but everything happened so fast that he had gone by the time I looked at the fine. If you are genuinely unable to pay, you could ask SWT to allow you to pay in instalments. A few friends have offered so it won't be a problem.

My ticket actually says Unpaid Fare Notice on it. Does this make a difference?

So you're saying that if I can't pay the excess right there and then, I would have received the £20 fine plus the excess to be paid later?

Thanks! Can't believe google didn't find that. xx

Hi, everyone. I was referred here by a really lovely and helpful person on MSE Just to set the situation, I'm 17, my parents are away, I have no money at the moment and it was 6:20am. Yesterday morning I was travelling from Salisbury to Brighton via Clapham instead of Southampton, as it said on the ticket. There are reasons as to why I thought this was OK. I was issued with an Unpaid Fare Notice for £64.20. I have checked the SW Trains website, and that is the cost of a ticket from Salisbury to Brighton via Clapham Junction. But I had already paid £30.60 for a ticket from Salisbury to Brighton via Southampton. It says on the back of my notice: "This notice is not a Penalty Fare Notice. You have been issued with this Unpaid fare notice as you have not been able to pay your fare or produce a valid rail ticket in accordance with Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited Policy and Produces and/or National Rail Conditions of Carriage. It is also considered that this incident does not fall within the scope of the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994. So according to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage: 13 (e) If you make your journey by a route other than those referred to in (a) and[(b) above, you will be liable to pay an excess fare. This excess fare will be the difference between the price paid for the ticket you hold and the price of the lowest priced ticket(s) available for immediate travel that would have entitled you to travel by that route." Final question: Does anyone have any solid evidence that if an unpaid fare form is filled in wrong, it is void? Thanks for reading!!