TFL penalty charge

Peter767

Hi everyone

I would be grateful if somebody can help us to appeal a PCN issued to my wife and daughter today (Sunday). There was a replacement bus service between Chelmsford and Ingatestone, so my wife an daughter took the replacement bus service and tapped from Shenfield (barriers were open at Ingatestone). They then took London underground and tapped the same cards and on the return journey, took an overhead from London Liverpool street, tapped the same cards which opened the barriers. However, on reaching Chelmsford, they touched the same cards and the barriers didn't open and they were given a fixed penalty notice of £50 each and also asked to pay return journey fare of £8:20 each.

Th credit card they used to tap shows today's touch in but is still in pending as it's a weekend.
The officer on duty was rude and wouldn't listen to anything and just handed the penalty which left my wife and daughter really shocked. To complicate things, the penalty notice states Shenfield to Chelmsford when the return train never stopped at Shenfield.

Are the contactless  cards not valid on travel from London to Chelmsford? If so, why did the barrier open at London when they tapped the card and then not at Chelmsford?

We are looking for answers as it is so embarrassing and frustrating at the same time, not to mention the £100 penalty charge notice, the credit card payment for tapping and the fare charged by the officer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated to help us appeal.

400ixl

No, you cannot use Oyster or TFL contactless to get to Chelmsford. The readers at chelmsford are for rail cards, not TFL.

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/tickets-fares/daily-tickets/oyster-cards

It will have worked at the London terminal as it does not know where you are travelling to.

Gr1pr

As this is not a private parking company charge, please go to the FTLA  parking forum website and post your query in the appropriate section there,  after reading the posting requirements first for that site 

p00hsticks

Gr1pr said:

As this is not a private parking company charge, please go to the FTLA  parking forum website and post your query in the appropriate section there,  after reading the posting requirements first for that site 

I don't think that that's appropriate , as my reading of the OP is that the issue is nothing to do with parking at all, but rather relates to a penalty fare for travelling on the rail network without being in possession of a valid ticket. 

This website has a board for public transport issues , although not purely dedlcated to fines 
Public transport & cycling — MoneySavingExpert Forum

RailUK Forums is  another site that is soometimes recommended.

Peter767

Hi everyone

I would be grateful if somebody can help us to appeal a PCN issued to my wife and daughter today (Sunday). There was a replacement bus service between Chelmsford and Ingatestone, so my wife an daughter took the replacement bus service and tapped from Shenfield (barriers were open at Ingatestone). They then took London underground and tapped the same cards and on the return journey, took an overhead from London Liverpool street, tapped the same cards which opened the barriers. However, on reaching Chelmsford, they touched the same cards and the barriers didn't open and they were given a fixed penalty notice of £50 each and also asked to pay return journey fare of £8:20 each.

Th credit card they used to tap shows today's touch in but is still in pending as it's a weekend.
The officer on duty was rude and wouldn't listen to anything and just handed the penalty which left my wife and daughter really shocked. To complicate things, the penalty notice states Shenfield to Chelmsford when the return train never stopped at Shenfield.

Are the contactless  cards not valid on travel from London to Chelmsford? If so, why did the barrier open at London when they tapped the card and then not at Chelmsford?

We are looking for answers as it is so embarrassing and frustrating at the same time, not to mention the £100 penalty charge notice, the credit card payment for tapping and the fare charged by the officer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated to help us appeal.

400ixl

Please stick to one thread.

As with my response on your other one.

No, you cannot use Oyster or TFL contactless to get to Chelmsford. The readers at chelmsford are for rail cards, not TFL.

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/tickets-fares/daily-tickets/oyster-cards

It will have worked at the London terminal as it does not know where you are travelling to.

Peter767

Hi forumite

Thanks for your response. I will close the other thread.

they were not aware of this and as the barrier opened, they thought it was the same as contactless payment in London. Will they be charged on the card as well as paying the return fare and is there a way to appeal against the PCN?

400ixl

You can do a claim with TFL for their charge via their website if it is working (due to their ongoing fixes from their cyber incident).

What is the appeal against the fine? They made a journey without a valid ticket. When I get the train from London Liverpool Street on Greater Anglia trains it is mentioned that TFL travel is not valid on that service over the train tannoy before it leaves.

Peter767

Its not TFL but the contactless credit card and that's what confused them.

spenderdave

As stated contactless cannot be used from Chelmsford.

https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/tickets-fares/daily-tickets/oyster-cards

Chelmsford is planned to go into the expanded contactless system during 2025 and maybe equipment has already been installed in advance like on other expanded region stations. You can probably claim to have been confused by this especially if there were no signs near the machines. But in reality you will probably just have to pay the fine anyway.

Peter767

thanks spendersave, a full payment has been taken from the 2 cards when they touched at Shenfield, will that be a defence?