Hi all,
I had a very stressful and unpleasant experience on my trip into work yesterday morning, having been issued a Penalty Fare Notice in circumstances which I feel are really unfair. A bit of a vent, but I want to say that my stress was compounded by the fact that my planned connection on that trip was already cancelled (so I was already going to be late into work), and the night previously every direct train was cancelled for 4 hours in a row, so my only option was a convoluted journey that took 50 minutes longer than usual and didn't get me home until after midnight. I think it's fair to say that I feel so aggrieved that given that service, and what I put up with on Thameslink services almost every day I was then being made to feel like a dishonest, fare dodging passenger with what felt like no recourse! Anyway, I have drafted an Appeal which I set out below (that includes the circumstances in which I was charged a Penalty Fare, so I have not repeated them here). I am determined to appeal, and would be grateful for any comments on what I have set out below so that I might improve prospects, please. Thanks so much in advance!
"On 27 March 2024 I travelled on the off peak Thameslink service departing 9.25am, final destination City Thameslink. At 9.35am, I was given a Penalty Fare Notice, although I held, and produced to the ticketing officer, a ticket for an off peak return journey in the correct fare that I was required to pay to take that journey into London that day.
The circumstances of this ticket purchase and penalty fare are as follows:
I had a very stressful and unpleasant experience on my trip into work yesterday morning, having been issued a Penalty Fare Notice in circumstances which I feel are really unfair. A bit of a vent, but I want to say that my stress was compounded by the fact that my planned connection on that trip was already cancelled (so I was already going to be late into work), and the night previously every direct train was cancelled for 4 hours in a row, so my only option was a convoluted journey that took 50 minutes longer than usual and didn't get me home until after midnight. I think it's fair to say that I feel so aggrieved that given that service, and what I put up with on Thameslink services almost every day I was then being made to feel like a dishonest, fare dodging passenger with what felt like no recourse! Anyway, I have drafted an Appeal which I set out below (that includes the circumstances in which I was charged a Penalty Fare, so I have not repeated them here). I am determined to appeal, and would be grateful for any comments on what I have set out below so that I might improve prospects, please. Thanks so much in advance!
"On 27 March 2024 I travelled on the off peak Thameslink service departing 9.25am, final destination City Thameslink. At 9.35am, I was given a Penalty Fare Notice, although I held, and produced to the ticketing officer, a ticket for an off peak return journey in the correct fare that I was required to pay to take that journey into London that day.
The circumstances of this ticket purchase and penalty fare are as follows:
- I arrived at Baldock Station in time to catch the 9.25am train from Baldock (final destination City Thameslink), as the train was pulling in.
- I started purchasing my off-peak return ticket while on the platform (using the Trainline app). That would have been at c.9.24am or 9.25am. Between selecting my ticket and going through to the payment method, my phone automatically connected to Thameslink’s WiFi network, from the train pulling in. That WiFi network does not have signal required to operate the Trainline app. I’ve attached a screenshot of the error message – taken later, at the time of writing this appeal. There was therefore a delay in being able to purchase my ticket.
- I therefore turned off the WiFi on my phone, repeated the exercise of purchasing whilst on the platform/stepping onto/on the train, by which point, and by the time the transaction had completed, the time had obviously ticked over from 9.25am, to 9.26am.
- c.10 minutes later (at 9.35am), I was issued a penalty fare on the basis that the time of my ticket was 9.26am, and the train had departed Baldock at 9.25am.
- I wasn’t aware that this was, or could have been an issue. I was very confused that it was and really distressed. I explained this, and how I had purchased my ticket, to the employee issuing my penalty fare. It was disregarded.
- What I had purchased was a valid ticket with the correct fare for the journey that I was taking. There is no question of not buying a ticket; or not buying the correct ticket.
- Thameslink publicises that it uses the penalty fare scheme to ensure that “all passenger journeys made with us are paid for”. It explains that it is for “ticketless travel and fraud” and because such travel “is unfair for our honest, paying passengers”.
- In this case, it has been decided that a minute (if that) of travel is sufficient to classify me as a “ticketless traveller”, and by implication, a dishonest passenger, such that it would be fair to charge me the full, correct price for my journey PLUS the full penalty fare. In total £146.70.
- Issuing a penalty fare in the circumstances I have described here is completely out of kilter with the policy underlying the scheme. Having reviewed the relevant instruments, including the National Rail Conditions of Travel, I do not see how this is grounds for a penalty fare notice to have been issued at all.
- In any case, I appeal the penalty fare notice including on the grounds that there are compelling reasons why, in these particular circumstances including those outlined above, I should not be liable to pay the penalty fare."