Penalty fare

[honestcitizen]

The problem is that the rail companies are privately owned & dont want to pay for errors made by of the public.

It may seem unfair that if someone makes an honest mistake by forgetting their railcard & has to pay a charge even though they show the card later, someone has to pay for the system to check that there really was a railcard.

The DVLA has the same attitude when people dont show their tax disc, pay a fine or go to court, even if you have a valid tax disc.

 

Actually, on reflection, I'm not sure this point is valid. Just because they rail companies don't want to pay for errors made by the public does not entitle them to ignore the policy. The DVLA is not the same case because - as far as I know - there is not the same policy in place that they are ignoring (if that makes sense). I'm going to back off now - I've taken up enough of your time, and I need to move on! Thank you all for taking the time to reply to all my posts - it has helped clarify my thinking on the matter.

[Thomask]

Thank you everyone for your responses which I have read in great detail.

 

As you know, someone suggested to me, as posted by me above, that I raised the fact about the incorrectly charged amount. From reading your replies it doesn't appear this would get my anywhere. I'm guessing this is a lot different from PCNs which councils issue as some years ago I had a PCN cancelled simply because the fine was made invalid due to there being incorrect information printed on the document itself.

 

I'm guessing a similar law does not apply to these types of tickets?

 

What do you all think of point 7 in the following article (I have to describe the URL as I can't post links until I have 10 or more posts - hope everyone is OK with me doing it this way):

 

Address is thisislondon (with a .uk domain) and article number is 23731140

[honeybee13]

Hello there. This seems to be the London Evening Standard, am I right?

 

If you want to PM the link to me, because the article number you gave didn't work for me, I'll post it on the forum.

 

My best, HB

[SRPO]

Is that the Andrew Gilligan article? if so there were copyright issues.

[Old-CodJA]

Andrew Gilligan never condoned fare evasion.

 

His article was largely concerned with AVOIDING penalty fares and the best way to do that is to always travel with a valid ticket.

[Thomask]

Hi honeybee

 

Thanks for offering to post the URL - I have sent this in a private message.

 

I need to appeal this fine quickly. However, I would like clarity on the following, if anyone knows, please:

 

If I appeal the fine without mention of it possibly being invalid and they come back and insist the fine remains, do I then have an opportunity to raise the issue of the fine possibly being invalid or must all of my argument be included in the same single appeal?

[honeybee13]

Hello Thomas and the guys. This link seems to be the Andrew Gilligan article mentioned before. Here it is as requested, I hope it helps to clarify things for you.

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23731140-fare-dodgers.do

 

My best, HB

[Old-CodJA]

Yes, SRPO is right, there were copyright issues when this was first posted, which remain as far as I am aware, but more importantly, I would be very careful in how you interpret what is written.

 

This is particularly important where the article may be read to suggest that a traveller cannot be prosecuted for fare evasion where they fail, or refuse to pay a penalty fare.

 

That is not the case as many thousands of travellers have discovered to their cost.