Penalty Fare - Travelling overland trains outside Oyster Card zones

Davidben83

Hi all

Any advice here would be great. Last Tuesday my girlfriend and I travelled from London Charing Cross to Hither Green on South Eastern to visit friends. We made the geninue mistake of not realising that Hither Green is in zone three and as our Oyster travel card is only for zones 1-2, we occured a penalty fare (although we only paid the difference at that point).

I am planning to appeal. Any advice on how to do this or just general opinions would be great!

Thank you

David

Hintza

Save your breath. What grounds are you going to appeal?

Take it from me who fought London Underground via the Ombudsman for 6 months over a £10 penalty.........life is too short.

Davidben83

Thanks. I will not fight for ever. I will send in a cheque with the appeal and if I lose, I lose. However, I think that there is a lack of information on these rules and it is very difficult to determine what zone you are entering. Also, there is a lack of informaiton about the difference between tube and rail travel. Ultimately, I know that these arguments will not get me anywhere. And I am not going to lose any sleep over it but I just think that the policy is out-of-order so I am going to try to kick up some fuss.

geordieracer

Davidben83 wrote: »

Thanks. I will not fight for ever. I will send in a cheque with the appeal and if I lose, I lose. However, I think that there is a lack of information on these rules and it is very difficult to determine what zone you are entering. Also, there is a lack of informaiton about the difference between tube and rail travel. Ultimately, I know that these arguments will not get me anywhere. And I am not going to lose any sleep over it but I just think that the policy is out-of-order so I am going to try to kick up some fuss.

You will lose. There are BIG colourful maps that some fool stupidly left plastered to walls all over train stations and underground stations and on these stupid little handy maps things that quite clearly tell you what zones every stationin london is in. I know of 2 such maps in charing cross station.and plenty more in the underground.

The only difference is that on the overground you cannot travel on SE with a pay-asyou-go Oyster. A season Oyster is fine. Again this is clearly stipulated on posters around the station if you bothered to look. Or even bloody ask someone.

Your ignorance of not knowing how far you are travelling and into what zone it not grounds for a sucessfull appeal so dont waste your time or effort and everyone elses.And seeing how you only paid the difference and not £20 each means you haev got off lightly so bite the bullet and let it drop.

Chippy_Minton_2

Yet another newbie with time to waste on a pointless appeal and pointless thread.

Rail_Staff

I can only concur, there maps at every station so the train company has fulfilled its obligation to provide you with winformation, you also have an obligation to check these maps if you are unsure what zone you are travelling to.

What is it you trying to appeal? You were charged the correct fare for the journey you made, you could very easily have been charged two penalty fares so my advice would be to chalk it up to experience.