advice on northern rail parking fine please

cjj_2

Hi Can i ask if northern rail tickets can be ignored. tia x

Coupon-mad

The answer is no - but they can be appealed and can sometimes be cancelled.

On pepipoo forum there were a few cases in recent months if you want to search for them, where Northern Rail actually followed up their tickets - which are real 'penalty notices' issued by themselves. Is that what you have got? NR actually looked set to take some cases to Magistrates Court.

Thing is, the ONLY offences covered by bylaw 14 seem to be not paying for a P&D ticket (as I understand it) or breach of clear t&cs as specifically displayed in the car park. So technically that's the only sort of offence they can take to Magistrates' Court if you do not pay.

However, on pepipoo there have been cases of NR issuing the same-looking ticket for civil matters, such as parking outside of bay lines. My understanding is that sort of issue is not covered by bylaws UNLESS the signage in the car park specifically lists that contravention under the t&cs of car park use.

I recall one case where the person checked the signs, there was nothing about parking only within marked bays, therefore there was no bylaw breach. So the person appealed on that basis, pretty politely, pointing out he was a regular customer who paid a fortune in train tickets and that the t&cs on the signs did not mention anything about bays - and his appeal was accepted.

cjj_2

Thanks coupon mad that is so helpful.
It is a penalty parking notice for not parking in a marked bay. People have been doing the same, me included for past year with no problems. The car park gets full and I was not causing an obstruction. Sign says only park within marked bays and authorised parking areas.

Coupon-mad

So try a simple appeal to Northern Rail. This is a real penalty ticket but appealable. Worth a try, keep it polite and if you are regular traveller on their lines then say so and point out you had no idea it would be a problem, etc.

You have to be a bit careful with Railway Bylaws tickets but there have been appeal successes reported before.

RENEGADE_2

I curse the Railway Byelaws. I was one of those who hated British Rail and believed privatisation was the key, and what happened? The whole outfit was taken over by cowboys, and if only everyone knew the problems I had precisely because this is a loose confederation of imbeciles that don't communicate with each other, YOU'D all wish for British Rail back too. Atleast in the old days, the left hand knew what the right hand was doing. And is it cheaper now? Is it hell! Why? Because despite there being all those companies, they still monopolise on their patch. So from Square One we regress to Square Zero...

...then Railway Byelaws are introduced - criminalising any breach of terms in that field.

cjj_2

Thanks guys.
Appeal done. Will keep fingers crossed x

RENEGADE_2

Let us know what was said. I mean, even an initial rejection by them may not spell the end of the road for you.

cjj_2

Northern rail today rejected the appeal. Did exactly as coupon- mad suggested and wrote a polite letter. They are saying I should have parked in a marked bay, but signage states " park in marked bays and authorised areas only " ,which I thought it was as no yellow lines and not causing obstruction. Other users regularly parked in same place etc.i don't know what happens now as they have given us 14days to pay £50 and does not state what they will do if we dont pay. Thanks all x

Crabman

As requested, I'm moving this to the Parking board

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

cjj_2

Thank you for the quick work crab man x

jkdd77

In addition to the excellent advice on this forum, I would also post on Pepipoo as well.