Paid for ticket was running late so didn’t collect but I got a penalty notice

[fvdl14]

On Tuesday 11th of august I took a train from rugby to Brighton and hove. I ordered the ticket and received a collection code however I was running late for my train and barely got on. I explained to the ticket inspector my situation and showed proof that I had paid the money and she still gave me a ticket. On the the penalty notice she also overcharged me as on my phone it showed a ticket that was super off peak that was 20 pound however I got charged 31 pound on the penalty notice. If I appeal this what would be the best way to write it so the appeal goes through. I have proof of e receipt and pictures of the penalty notice. Thank you for reading

 

[Bletchleyite]

That would indeed look to be a straightforward appeal on the grounds of the incorrect fare having been used. Assuming the train departed Rugby after 1900 (which I think it did looking at when it was issued) the Super Off Peak Single at £20.90 should have been used.

You should also have been offered the option to have a Penalty Fare to the next station stop at which you could have left the train and collected your tickets. Were you offered that, or was the inspection at the point where Euston was the next stop? If not that is a further ground for appeal. Penalty Fares by default should be issued to the next station stop at which set down is allowed, only if requested by the passenger should they be issued further than that.

In future please bear in mind that you must collect the tickets before boarding, the only time you don't need to is if it was impossible to do so because no provision was made, i.e. the booking office was closed AND the TVMs were all not working. This appeal is only possible on a technicality, not because it was incorrect to issue a penalty fare in these circumstances. Running late is unfortunately not an excuse, only that the railway provided no means for you to purchase or collect.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@fvdl14. Welcome to the forum. £31.40 seems to be the undiscounted Off Peak Single fare, from Rugby to London Euston (Route LNR & WMR ONLY). So, why not a £20.90 Super Off Peak Single charged? Supplementary questions... At the time the PF was issued, was the train somewhere between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston (next stop)? Also, how did you then get from London Euston over to London Road (Brighton)?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Also, how did you then get from London Euston over to London Road (Brighton)?

The sensible way to do that journey is by walking from Euston to St Pancras, but I'm not sure it's overly relevant to the penalty fare what was or wasn't done - Penalty Fares are only issued with reference to stations served directly by the train on which they were issued.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

The sensible way to do that journey is by walking from Euston to St Pancras, but I'm not sure it's overly relevant to the penalty fare what was or wasn't done...

Were the originally booked ticket(s) collected/used? Or not.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Were the originally booked ticket(s) collected/used? Or not.

Not sure it's relevant as walk up tickets are not refundable after the day of validity. In the past if they weren't a refund would be suggested as they would be effectively unused but that no longer works.

 

[fvdl14]

That would indeed look to be a straightforward appeal on the grounds of the incorrect fare having been used. Assuming the train departed Rugby after 1900 (which I think it did looking at when it was issued) the Super Off Peak Single at £20.90 should have been used.

You should also have been offered the option to have a Penalty Fare to the next station stop at which you could have left the train and collected your tickets. Were you offered that, or was the inspection at the point where Euston was the next stop? If not that is a further ground for appeal. Penalty Fares by default should be issued to the next station stop at which set down is allowed, only if requested by the passenger should they be issued further than that.

In future please bear in mind that you must collect the tickets before boarding, the only time you don't need to is if it was impossible to do so because no provision was made, i.e. the booking office was closed AND the TVMs were all not working. This appeal is only possible on a technicality, not because it was incorrect to issue a penalty fare in these circumstances. Running late is unfortunately not an excuse, only that the railway provided no means for you to purchase or collect.

That would indeed look to be a straightforward appeal on the grounds of the incorrect fare having been used. Assuming the train departed Rugby after 1900 (which I think it did looking at when it was issued) the Super Off Peak Single at £20.90 should have been used.

You should also have been offered the option to have a Penalty Fare to the next station stop at which you could have left the train and collected your tickets. Were you offered that, or was the inspection at the point where Euston was the next stop? If not that is a further ground for appeal. Penalty Fares by default should be issued to the next station stop at which set down is allowed, only if requested by the passenger should they be issued further than that.

In future please bear in mind that you must collect the tickets before boarding, the only time you don't need to is if it was impossible to do so because no provision was made, i.e. the booking office was closed AND the TVMs were all not working. This appeal is only possible on a technicality, not because it was incorrect to issue a penalty fare in these circumstances. Running late is unfortunately not an excuse, only that the railway provided no means for you to purchase or collect.

It departed rugby at 20:30 and I believe there was one more station before London euston I cannot remember as I was trying to dispute my case to the ticket officer sadly.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Aug 2026 ==

@fvdl14. Welcome to the forum. £31.40 seems to be the undiscounted Off Peak Single fare, from Rugby to London Euston (Route LNR & WMR ONLY). So, why not a £20.90 Super Off Peak Single charged? Supplementary questions... At the time the PF was issued, was the train somewhere between Milton Keynes Central and London Euston (next stop)? Also, how did you then get from London Euston over to London Road (Brighton)?

I got off at London euston and collected my tickets from there and I was able to board the tube to London Victoria then to London road Brighton

 

[Watershed]

I was on the train right behind the OP when this happened. The Revenue Protection Manager boarded at Milton Keynes so the next stop was Euston. She claimed that she needed to issue a PF because tickets are automatically refunded if uncollected, and thus some people avoid their fare that way.

I have no doubt that this might have been a method used by some people in the past, but since the refund changes on 1 April it is of course no longer possible. When I spoke to her after she had finished going through the train to correct her on this, she and her colleague insisted it was accurate and even claimed that she had checked with a manager and this was still the case. She knew about the refund rule changes but claimed they had only applied to eTickets and the position for ToD bookings was unchanged.

I have no idea where anyone gets such bunkum information - it certainly wasn't what the industry-wide briefing said. Indeed, excluding ToD would have been a pragmatic way of applying this change but the industry shied away from that - perhaps in fear of encouraging ToD uptake.

It's concerning that at least three members of WMT revenue protection staff are of this mistaken belief especially as it's certainly not the first instance of unprofessional behaviour we have heard of by WMT revenue staff. When I raised the ORR revenue protection review, whose recommendations included not penalising people where there is no possibility of revenue loss, the RPM unsurprisingly got rather defensive.

Fortunately for the OP (in a sense), she issued the PF incorrectly by charging the Off-Peak fare rather than the Super Off-Peak fare, thus giving the OP simple grounds for appeal. Of course that doesn't guarantee success at the first or second stage of appeal, but there is a good chance that an appeal will succeed at one of the three stages.

If the OP would like to post a draft appeal I'm sure we can provide feedback on it before they send it in. I'm sure we could also assist them in raising a separate complaint to WMT about the RPM's behaviour, though if previous experience is anything to go by, I wouldn't expect this to go anywhere.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Watershed. Thanks for clarifying. It does seem potentially unfair that a PF issued with respect to uncollected, but already paid for, and unrefundable ticket(s), might cost the OP more in total than simply not having bought any ticket(s) whatsoever, once you factor everything in. Notwithstanding this, as regards the OP's appeal, what should they specifically mention so as to have the best chance of success (if only at the third appeal)?

 

[Bletchleyite]

@Watershed. Thanks for clarifying. It does seem potentially unfair that a PF issued with respect to uncollected, but already paid for, and unrefundable ticket(s), might cost in total more than simply not buying any ticket(s) whatsoever, once you factor everything in. Notwithstanding this, as regards the OP's appeal, what should they specifically mention so as to perhaps have the best chance of success?

They should appeal on the grounds that the fare charged on the Penalty Fare is incorrect. That alone should be sufficient but may require all three stages to be used. The PF is issued incorrectly so cannot stand.

 

[jumble]

I was on the train right behind the OP when this happened. The Revenue Protection Manager boarded at Milton Keynes so the next stop was Euston. She claimed that she needed to issue a PF because tickets are automatically refunded if uncollected, and thus some people avoid their fare that way.

I have no doubt that this might have been a method used by some people in the past, but since the refund changes on 1 April it is of course no longer possible. When I spoke to her after she had finished going through the train to correct her on this, she and her colleague insisted it was accurate and even claimed that she had checked with a manager and this was still the case. She knew about the refund rule changes but claimed they had only applied to eTickets and the position for ToD bookings was unchanged.

I have no idea where anyone gets such bunkum information - it certainly wasn't what the industry-wide briefing said. Indeed, excluding ToD would have been a pragmatic way of applying this change but the industry shied away from that - perhaps in fear of encouraging ToD uptake.

It's concerning that at least three members of WMT revenue protection staff are of this mistaken belief especially as it's certainly not the first instance of unprofessional behaviour we have heard of by WMT revenue staff. When I raised the ORR revenue protection review, whose recommendations included not penalising people where there is no possibility of revenue loss, the RPM unsurprisingly got rather defensive.

Fortunately for the OP (in a sense), she issued the PF incorrectly by charging the Off-Peak fare rather than the Super Off-Peak fare, thus giving the OP simple grounds for appeal. Of course that doesn't guarantee success at the first or second stage of appeal, but there is a good chance that an appeal will succeed at one of the three stages.

If the OP would like to post a draft appeal I'm sure we can provide feedback on it before they send it in. I'm sure we could also assist them in raising a separate complaint to WMT about the RPM's behaviour, though if previous experience is anything to go by, I wouldn't expect this to go anywhere.

Here is word for word from another TOC on an email sent to me on 5 July 2026 in response to a complaint

(One big porkie pie as their booking office will do nothing of the sort)

Refund Information

If your ticket was purchased from another retailer and you did not use your ticket, please contact the retailer directly within 28 days of the tickets expiry date in order to obtain your refund.

If your unused ticket was purchased from a xxx station, please return your ticket to one of our staffed station booking offices, within 28 days of the expiry date, where our staff will be able to assist you with your refund.

If your ticket was purchased via the xxx website or mobile app, you may sign in to your account and request a refund within 28 days of the ticket expiry date

 

[fvdl14]

Here is my draft appeal let me know if I can make any changes

My name

My address

My email

My phone number



18/8/26



To the Appeals Officer / Independent Appeals Service,



Re: Appeal against Penalty fare / notice

Reference: PF922102

Date of travel: 11/8/26

Train Operator: London Northwestern Railway



I am writing to formally appeal the penalty fare notice issued to me on the 11/8/26

I believe this notice was incorrectly issued and calculated because I was overcharged for the ticket portion of the fine, and I had already settled or provided payment for the correct underlying fare. On the day in question, I was unable to collect a ticket at the rugby station due to having to run to catch the last train back to London euston, the reason this was the last train back for me was due to the fact I was traveling all the way back to London road Brighton and if I didn’t get this particular train I would’ve been stuck in London Victoria until the morning, I was on the train when a ticket inspector RN23722 gave me a penalty notice although I showed her I had already paid on my phone but was unable to collect the ticket at the station. She then stated that she didn’t care and charged me for an off peak ticket which was £31.40 plus penalty notice. The ticket she charged me for was wrong as the 20:30 train from rugby to London Euston was a super off peak which was £20.90.

I have already paid the base cost of the ticket (I will show the receipt and bank statement) and the additional penalty fare was applied in error due to this overcharge/miscalculation by staff.

I request that this penalty fare be cancelled. Enclosed with this letter are copies of my original ticket receipt and the penalty notice for your review.

Yours faithfully,

My name.

 

[WesternLancer]

Here is my draft appeal let me know if I can make any changes

My name

My address

My email

My phone number



18/8/26



To the Appeals Officer / Independent Appeals Service,



Re: Appeal against Penalty fare / notice

Reference: PF922102

Date of travel: 11/8/26

Train Operator: London Northwestern Railway



I am writing to formally appeal the penalty fare notice issued to me on the 11/8/26

I believe this notice was incorrectly issued and calculated because I was overcharged for the ticket portion of the fine, and I had already settled or provided payment for the correct underlying fare. On the day in question, I was unable to collect a ticket at the rugby station due to having to run to catch the last train back to London euston, the reason this was the last train back for me was due to the fact I was traveling all the way back to London road Brighton and if I didn’t get this particular train I would’ve been stuck in London Victoria until the morning, I was on the train when a ticket inspector RN23722 gave me a penalty notice although I showed her I had already paid on my phone but was unable to collect the ticket at the station. She then stated that she didn’t care and charged me for an off peak ticket which was £31.40 plus penalty notice. The ticket she charged me for was wrong as the 20:30 train from rugby to London Euston was a super off peak which was £20.90.

I have already paid the base cost of the ticket (I will show the receipt and bank statement) and the additional penalty fare was applied in error due to this overcharge/miscalculation by staff.

I request that this penalty fare be cancelled. Enclosed with this letter are copies of my original ticket receipt and the penalty notice for your review.

Yours faithfully,

My name.

don't send that in yet - some of that needs sharpening up and no doubt people here will help you do that (also it's important not to refer to it as a fine - as it is not a fine - even tho obv it feels like one!)

And don't mention at all that you did not have time to collect the ticket - that's an invitation to them to dismiss the appeal straight away I would think. You should have made sure you did have time

 

[fvdl14]

don't send that in yet - some of that needs sharpening up and no doubt people here will help you do that (also it's important not to refer to it as a fine - as it is not a fine - even tho obv it feels like one!)

And don't mention at all that you did not have time to collect the ticket - that's an invitation to them to dismiss the appeal straight away I would think. You should have made sure you did have time

Thank you for your help I won’t mention that I had no time to collect the ticket should I say something else instead or leave this out completely?

 

[Coleridge]

I think you ought to cut it right down to the absolute basics - that you were given a penalty fare having failed to present a valid ticket, but that an incorrect fare was charged and the penalty fare was therefore invalid. Make it easy for the person reading it by saying what fare you were charged and what the fare should have been at the time you were travelling, but keep it very brief. Don't use AI, but use simple language.

They won't care that you were running late, or had to get to Brighton, or had already paid for a ticket, because none of this excuses not being able to present a valid ticket.

Compose a new appeal email, and I'm sure the experts here will be able to help you tweak it for the best chance of a successful appeal.

 

[Watershed]

I would refer explicitly to the Penalty Fares regulations (see here) you are relying on for your appeal. You could start with something like the below. Remember to include all of the attachments cited when submitting - but wait for other posters to provide feedback before doing so.

If the form has a character limit which this exceeds, simply paste it into Word or Google Docs and save it as a PDF, which you can then upload instead, and then just enter "please refer to Appeal grounds.pdf" (or similar) in the form.

I am appealing the Penalty Fare under regulations 16(3)(a) and (d) of the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018, as amended.

Amount more than prescribed

My first ground of appeal, under regulation 16(3)(a), is that the Penalty Fare was not issued in accordance with the requirements of the Regulations, due to it being issued for a sum higher than is prescribed by the Regulations.

Regulation 9(1A) requires that:

(1A) In respect of England, where a penalty fare is charged under regulation 5(1) to a person travelling by, present on, or leaving a train, the amount of the penalty fare is—
(a) £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable

The term "full single fare applicable" is defined in subsections (5A) and (6) as:

(5A) In paragraph (4A)(a) “the full single fare applicable” is the full single fare for the journey in question from the boarding station to the station that the penalty fare authorises the person to travel to under regulation 5(8A)(b).

(6) In this regulation “the full single fare applicable” is to be determined by reference to—
(a) the age of the person in question;
(b) the day and time of the journey that person is making, has made or intends to make, as the case may be; and
(c) the train and route that person is using, has used or intends to use.

Therefore regulations 9(6)(b) and (c) make it clear that the time of travel and operator used must be taken into consideration when determining the "full single fare applicable".

I was travelling on the 20:30 London Northwestern Railway service from Rugby to London Euston. As per the attached screenshot from the National Rail Enquiries website, the fare applicable to this service is £20.90, for a Super Off-Peak Single. The Penalty Fare has been issued for £131.40, which is therefore more than £10 in excess of the £120.90 it should have been issued for.

Compelling reasons

Furthermore, I am appealing under regulation 16(3)(d) on the grounds that I believe there are "compelling reasons" why I should not be liable to pay the Penalty Fare.

I had bought and paid for a valid ticket before travelling, as per the attached booking confirmation. Following the changes to industry refund rules on 1 April 2026 it is no longer possible to obtain a refund on unused tickets on or after the day of travel, as per the attached industry press release.

Nevertheless, the member of staff issuing the Penalty Fare claimed that she was doing so on the grounds that I would automatically receive a refund of my booking, because I had not collected my ticket before boarding. She was mistaken, as all retailers have been required to apply the new industry policy as of 1 April.

Due to this industry-wide change, it was impossible for me to have claimed a refund, or to have received one automatically. As such, there was no possibility of the industry losing out on the money I had paid for my journey.

In the Office of Rail and Road's recent review of train operators' revenue protection practices, it recommended at paragraph 35 (https://www.orr.gov.uk/independent-review-train-operators-revenue-protection-practices) establishing "clear principles, including ... not penalising passengers where there is a ticket irregularity involving no risk of revenue loss".

To date, there is no evidence of West Midlands Trains establishing such principles, and this is demonstrated by the fact that I was issued with this Penalty Fare in spite of the fact that there was no risk of revenue loss, as I had bought my ticket before travel and it was non-refundable.

As WMT are not complying with an official recommendation from the industry regulator, I believe that there are "compelling grounds" for allowing my appeal, to avoid my being penalised in circumstances the regulator evidently believes to be unreasonable.

Conclusion

Under regulation 16(7), if the Appeal Panel is satisfied that the either of above grounds of appeal are established, it is obliged to allow an appeal. I therefore respectfully request that my appeal be allowed.

 

[30907]

I would put a straightforward statement of the actual appeal at the beginning (the paragraph "I was travelling..." would do) and back that up by quoting sufficient of the regulations to prove the argument. This makes it easier for the reviewer to understand.

As it is a slam-dunk ground for allowing the appeal, I would omit the second ground altogether.

Yes, the rationale the inspector gave is incorrect, and yes, the revenue risk at that time of night is minimal, but failing to comply with an independent recommendation to the industry doesn't invalidate the PF, so you would be asking the reviewer to exercise judgement. Don't give them the opportunity to get that wrong.

 

[island]

I have no idea where anyone gets such bunkum information - it certainly wasn't what the industry-wide briefing said.

Usually break room rumour mill.

 

[furlong]

As it is a slam-dunk ground for allowing the appeal, I would omit the second ground altogether.

On the contrary - you don't know the mindset of the person handling the appeal, and to some people (who care about keeping good customers happy) the second reason may be more compelling than an attempt to get off on a technicality they don't really understand!