TFL penalty charge

spenderdave

It looks like you did not have a ticket from Inglestone, that station is also outside the TFL contactless area. So technically you were travelling without a ticket from there to Shenfield, you still need a ticket to travel on Rail Replacement Buses even though they are rarely checked. Shenfield is within the contactless area so you would have been charged a normal ticket fare from there to Liverpool Street. In view of this you are best advised just to pay the penalty fare as it is and not to try and contest it as you would probably end up with a higher penalty for the Inglestone to Shenfield section.

jon81uk

Peter767 said:

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.

As others have said Contactless isn't valid to Chelmsford, the barrier lets you in as it doesn't know where you are getting off.

I would assume your penalty fare is from Greater Anglia as TfL don't operate Chelmsford station. In this case you are going to have to pay the penalty I expect, but you may want to post copies of all the corresponsance (with personal details redacted) here Disputes & Prosecutions | RailUK Forums and get some advice.

In terms of the TfL maximum fare charge for tapping in and not tapping out, you can either log in to the TfL website and complete it to another station and pay that low fare, or contact them, state you tapped in error but you were travelling outside of the TfL fares and ask them to refund.

Peter767

Thanks, really appreciate
will post this on the railforum