Need Help with ‘No Ticket’ Fine for Wrong Boarding Stop

[BillyBobz]

Hi all, hoping for some advice on a penalty fare I received and my recently rejected first appeal.

The Situation:

· I was given a "No Ticket" penalty fare (£100/£53) by West Midlands Railway.
· I had a valid ticket and a valid Railcard, purchased via the Trainline app.
· The catch: My ticket was valid from Stop C, but I boarded the train at Stop A (two stops earlier on the same line).

The Context:

· I use Trainline frequently and have multiple "favourite" journeys saved for different stops I use.
· I believe that due to my mental health condition (which affects concentration and routine tasks), I selected the wrong saved journey when purchasing, leading to this honest mistake.
· I did not travel further than my ticket allowed; I started earlier. I have always been willing to pay the fare difference for those two stops.

The Appeal:
My first appeal was rejected. I argued that my mental health was a mitigating factor in the purchasing error, but the Appeals Service upheld the fine, stating it's the passenger's responsibility to have a valid ticket.

I'm now preparing my second (and final) appeal. Has anyone successfully challenged a similar situation?

· Is arguing "proportionality" (i.e., I only owe the fare difference, not a full penalty) a strong angle?
· Are there specific conditions in the National Rail Conditions of Travel that support this?
· Any other tactical advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[AlterEgo]

Before we get into anything else: Is your mental health condition a disability? This has to be a simple yes or no answer.
Please also upload the notice with your personal details blanked out, because it may well be you have no useful line of appeal other than one of technicality. Penalty Fares can broadly only be appealed if they were not issued in accordance with the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018, which can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2018/366/contents

 

[Hadders]

· I had a valid ticket and a valid Railcard, purchased via the Trainline app.

My ticket was valid from Stop C, but I boarded the train at Stop A (two stops earlier on the same line).

Both of these statements cannot be correct.

We really need to know the stations you travelled from and to and the tickets held to properly assist, but if your journey was from A to D, and you only held a ticket from C to D then you did not have a valid ticket for your journey.

 

[island]

We also need to know where the passenger was when they were spoken to by an inspector. If, for example, they were spoken to at their destination and questioning established they had short-fared, that is not an appropriate case for issuance of a Penalty Fare.

 

[BillyBobz]

1. Yes in terms of disability I suffer mentally which is on my NHS records.

2. Correction: Yes you are correct, I did not have a valid ticket for my entire journey. I travelled from ACG (Acocks Green) to Birmingham Moor Street BMO. But only had a valid ticket from SMA Small Heath to BMO.

3. Where was I spoken to: Onboard the train between roughly ACG and SMA.

4. This is not even fare evasion. The penalty fare is disproportionate. The railways actual loss is only the ACG to SMA, not the value of the entire journey. A £53 penalty for this is unjust.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Oct 2025 ==

Also, here’s a pic of my notice.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

The penalty fare is disproportionate. The railways actual loss is only the ACG to SMA, not the value of the entire journey. A £53 penalty for this is unjust.

On this point, it's important to understand that a penalty of £100/£50 plus fare is what the law says should be charged. So you are unlikely to get this changed just for your case. To make this different you would have to get the law changed - which would mean a lot (probably several years) of campaigning, with no guarantee of success.

 

[dazzler17]

You have short fared. That is what has happened here. That is purchasing a ticket for only part of your journey. The way I see it is you have 2 options.

First pay the penalty fare and hope this all goes away. Paying early stops it jumping by £50

Second appeal it and shine a light on your ticket purchasing history.

If there is no other instances of short fares then its nothing to worry about. If there is then maybe just pay it and hope that is the end of the matter.

The penalty fare is designed to be high to deter people from fare evasion. To make it a deterrent. If you have other instances of short fares the costs associated will be significantly higher.

 

[AlterEgo]

Do you frequently buy tickets from Small Heath, the last stop before your destination? Is your address in Acocks Green? If you appeal this you might get a nasty shock and be accused of short faring by the train company. They'll have all your purchase history and ticket scan data.

 

[30907]

Leaving aside technicalities in the PF process (which I leave to another esteemed member), the only ground for appeal that I can see is that your condition means that you regularly select the wrong item from a list of possibilities. If you can evidence this (especially if you have overpaid as a result!) then you may succeed.

If not, yes £50 is an arbitrary amount but I advise paying it.

 

[Haywain]

4. This is not even fare evasion.

It is fare evasion, and it is almost certain that you have committed a criminal offence.

 

[John R]

I have always been willing to pay the fare difference for those two stops.

I’m sure you are. Most people caught without a valid ticket would be more than happy if the only consequence was that they then pay the fare they should have paid. But if you think about it, the inevitable consequence of that would be that many more would not bother buying a ticket. Why would you if you don’t get penalised on the occasions that you are caught?

A penalty fare is probably the least worst outcome. You could have been reported for prosecution, which would have likely ended up much more expensive, as a perusal of cases here will soon confirm.

 

[Egg Centric]

I'm confused where the £53/103 comes from. The PF is from Acocks Green to Small Heath, but I see no £3 fare. I only see more expensive options. So I don't see how the fare was issued within regulations.

Now whether this is good grounds for appeal is a matter of opinion. Personally I think it is but others disagree with me on the basis that the error is in your favour...

More important before deciding this is the pragmatic grounds @AlterEgo mentions, how would a deep dive into your ticketing history look for you?

 

[crosscity]

A Standard Anytime Single from Acocks Green to Small Heath is £3.20, so legally you have grounds for appeal against the PF.

A Standard Anytime Single from Small Heath to Moor St is £3.10, and from Acocks Green to Moor St is £3.70 so you have diddled the railway out of 60p irrespective of whether you intended to or not. The penalty fare is meant to be a slap on the wrist - an incentive for you to pay the correct fare in future.

You made an honest mistake, so why not accept the £53 pain, and be more careful when buying a ticket in future?Perhaps buying your ticket at the station might be better for you.

The pain will be a lot greater if you end up standing in front of a magistrate.

 

[CyrusWuff]

You made an honest mistake.

Small Heath is the Birmingham equivalent of Wembley Stadium for Marylebone.

I'm not saying that people don't legitimately travel between the two, but a significant percentage of those who buy a ticket between Small Heath and Birmingham will be short faring.

Anecdotally, I saw a ticket that had been collected from the TVM at Small Heath recently. The print was bordering on unreadable, suggesting the machine hadn't been used for some time so the ticket stock had deteriorated.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

· I believe that due to my mental health condition (which affects concentration and routine tasks), I selected the wrong saved journey when purchasing, leading to this honest mistake.
(...)

I'm now preparing my second (and final) appeal. Has anyone successfully challenged a similar situation?

Just to pick up on the above points
- if you want to rely on your mental health condition, you will probably need to supply written support from your medic/nurse/support worker/similar as to why it could lead you to buying the wrong ticket. It's unfortunately the case that there are people out there who will big up their mental health conditions if it's beneficial to them to do so, so the railway aren't as likely as they might be to believe an unsupported statement.

- unless there's something I have missed, you are entitled to three appeals against a penalty fare - and our experience is that when someone has a compelling reason why they shouldn't have to pay the penalty, this may only be resolved at the third appeal. While I share the consensus view here that you don't have a strong case and might do best to pay the £53, if you want to keep going with the appeal, don't ignore your third attempt.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I'm confused where the £53/103 comes from. The PF is from Acocks Green to Small Heath, but I see no £3 fare. I only see more expensive options. So I don't see how the fare was issued within regulations.

Now whether this is good grounds for appeal is a matter of opinion. Personally I think it is but others disagree with me on the basis that the error is in your favour...

The penalty fare should have been for £103.20, reduced by £50 is paid promptly. So the amount charged is wrong.

However this doesn't appear to be a productive line of argument when the error is in the passenger's favour. That's not to say the OP shouldn't pursue it- an incorrect Penalty Fare is an incorrect Penalty Fare- but I would say they should have realistic expectations.

Bear in mind, of course, that WMT may look more closely at the OP's ticketing history if he starts challenging it too much.

"Oh I pressed the wrong button in my popular journeys". Question one will then be "why is Small Heath to Moor Street in your popular journeys list when you live in Acocks Green?". Let's see how many other times you've bought a ticket from Small Heath...

 

[AlterEgo]

WMT are notorious for double dipping in this way when passengers have been Penalty Fared, just for the OP's own benefit. Many such cases on the forum, all habitual short ticketing.

 

[furlong]

Is arguing "proportionality" (i.e., I only owe the fare difference, not a full penalty) a strong angle?

No because it is largely irrelevant to the questions the appeals panel has to consider: higher authority has already decided that a £50 or £100 penalty on top of the fare due is a proportionate response.

However as the fare due was £3.20 not £3, the Penalty Fare was not issued in accordance with the regulations and you can argue that your appeal must be upheld on those grounds.
You may also check the status of the signage at the station where you boarded (exact wording used and placement of the notices) and mention that as well if it doesn't comply with the regulations.

(This train company is known frequently to investigate the digital travel history of people who receive penalty fares, and so if you have a history of buying the wrong ticket like this, don't be surprised if you receive a separate letter irrespective of what happens with your appeal.)

 

[Western Gaffer]

· I did not travel further than my ticket allowed; I started earlier.

My first appeal was rejected. I argued that my mental health was a mitigating factor in the purchasing error, but the Appeals Service upheld the fine, stating it's the passenger's responsibility to have a valid ticket.

I'm now preparing my second (and final) appeal.

Given the statement in the first quote, it'll probably be worth sharing exactly what you said in your first appeal, as well as draft wording for your second, as the tone of such documents matters, as well as the content.