The Student Room Group

Appeal for london underground penalty notice. HELP!?

Hi everyone.
Has anybody had any experience of appealing the London underground penalty fare notice?

I have a young person's railcard (still in school). Two weeks ago, I somehow lost it on the way home (had used it in the morning to buy the return ticket). A ticket inspector issued me a penalty fare notice of £40 saying I could not show him the card. I explained that I had it in the morning when buying the ticket, but didn't know it's lost. But he issued the notice regardless, and said I could appeal the notice if I do show that I do have a railcard.

I requested a replacement card which arrived a couple of days later and sent a copy to the appeal service (Independent Revenue Collection and Support). But to my horror, the appeal was rejected. They said that the card had to be shown at the time of travel, showing it later doesn't count. But my point is that the card was lost and I didn't have any way to show it at that moment. I didn't even know the card had been lost until the inspector asked for it. I wasn't intending to dodge the fare. The appeal service said now I could appeal to Transport for London directly, but I am not sure the likelihood of success and whether it's worthwhile for the effort?

Has anyone had successful experience for such a notice? Any advice would be appreciated.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Lazyguy
Hi everyone.
Has anybody had any experience of appealing the London underground penalty fare notice?

I have a young person's railcard (still in school). Two weeks ago, I somehow lost it on the way home (had used it in the morning to buy the return ticket). A ticket inspector issued me a penalty fare notice of £40 saying I could not show him the card. I explained that I had it in the morning when buying the ticket, but didn't know it's lost. But he issued the notice regardless, and said I could appeal the notice if I do show that I do have a railcard.

I requested a replacement card which arrived a couple of days later and sent a copy to the appeal service (Independent Revenue Collection and Support). But to my horror, the appeal was rejected. They said that the card had to be shown at the time of travel, showing it later doesn't count. But my point is that the card was lost and I didn't have any way to show it at that moment. I didn't even know the card had been lost until the inspector asked for it. I wasn't intending to dodge the fare. The appeal service said now I could appeal to Transport for London directly, but I am not sure the likelihood of success and whether it's worthwhile for the effort?

Has anyone had successful experience for such a notice? Any advice would be appreciated.


I don't think you're going to be successful. :no:

Part of the contract you enter into when buying the cheaper ticket is that you'll have your card on you. It is unfortunate that you lost it but ultimately you breached your terms and were - although you didn't know - were travelling without a valid ticket.

You can ask for leniency as it was lost but in their eyes it is the same as if you forgot it. It's like if you went into a supermarket and lost your voucher for a discount. You can't ask them to honour your discount if you can't prove you had the voucher. Although you can prove it when you get a new one, can you imagine how much work they'd have if everyone didn't bring their rail card and then proved it later? Everyone would just chance a cheaper ticket too!
Do you have any evidence that you had a current railcard? An email confirmation or something? If you have some form of proof that you were a valid railcard holder at the time and wrote a compelling letter I am sure you would be able to make a good case for an appeal. After all losing a card can't be that unusual.

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