DLR Penalty - forgot to touch in

[N333]

Today I was travelling on the DLR at Cyprus (going towards Canning Town) and had enough money for my journey. I had completely forgotten to touch in, and lo and behold, a ticket inspector comes round and assigns a £40 penalty! I asked if I could quickly go out and touch in at the next station (all the stations along this bit of the DLR have no barriers) - this would have been like maybe 10 metres away but he outright refused! Is there any chance of an appeal going through? When I was a child (I am a uni student now), something similar happened to me and I was simply allowed to just quickly run out and touch in. It would have been in the same zone so I would have been charged the exact same fare. I am a [very poor] student so £40 is a fortune! Any help would be much appreciated

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope the forum guys will be along later with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

[N333]

Bump

[Old-CodJA]

Today I was travelling on the DLR at Cyprus (going towards Canning Town) and had enough money for my journey. I had completely forgotten to touch in, and lo and behold, a ticket inspector comes round and assigns a £40 penalty! I asked if I could quickly go out and touch in at the next station (all the stations along this bit of the DLR have no barriers) - this would have been like maybe 10 metres away but he outright refused! Is there any chance of an appeal going through? When I was a child (I am a uni student now), something similar happened to me and I was simply allowed to just quickly run out and touch in. It would have been in the same zone so I would have been charged the exact same fare. I am a [very poor] student so £40 is a fortune! Any help would be much appreciated

 

 

It is very unlikely that an appeal will succeed in my opinion.

 

If using PAYG, it is up to the traveller to touch-in at the station where your journey started and if you haven't done so there is no obligation on an RPI, or any other authorised person, to allow you to do so elsewhere forgetting the journey already made without ticket.

 

Although the two stations may be in the same zone, it can be shown that there is technically a fare avoided in such an action. There will exist a fare between those two stations only.

[Grotesque]

Is there any chance of an appeal going through?

 

NO.

 

You have touched on part of the explanation yourself- the fact that you were a child then and now you're an adult. The discretion an Inspector possesses is very much to the fore with the former; almost none existent with the latter. It is worth mentioning that for an unpaid fare or penalty fare, too, the former are almost never prosecuted, the latter almost always.

 

Good luck.

[stifle]

I am afraid there is little hope of an appeal being successful. The DLR operates on an honour system and if people were simply allowed to pay their fare only when asked, it could not hope to be commercially viable.

 

As mentioned above, as an adult you will need to take responsibility for your actions and pay the £40, as it will go up to £80 if you don't pay within 21 days.