Frequently Asked Questions – A guide to the main parts of our service.
Penalty Fares works on the same principle as a ‘pay and display’ car park, where motorists may have to pay an extra charge if they do not buy a ticket when they park. Where Penalty Fares apply, posters inform rail passengers that they must buy their tickets before they start their journey wherever there are facilities for them to do so. If a passenger gets on a train without a valid ticket at a station where ticket facilities are available, they may be issued with a Penalty Fare Notice by a ticket inspector who has been appointed as an ‘authorised collector’. A Penalty Fare is not a fine but is an exceptional fare charged where a passenger is unable to present a valid ticket.
The cost of a Penalty Fare Notice is calculated as £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable.
If the Penalty Fare Notice is paid before the end of the period of 21 days beginning with the day following the day on which the Penalty Fare is charged, there is a discount of £50. In this case, the cost of the Penalty Fare Notice is £50 plus the price of the full single fare applicable
The “full single fare applicable” is the FULL single fare for the journey in question from the boarding station to the station that the Penalty Fare Notice authorises the person to travel to. This fare must take into account the age of the passenger, the day and time of the journey that they made or intended to make and the train and route that was used. No discount is given for this fare. This includes Railcards, advanced fares or any other applicable discount.
The law as written in ‘The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018 as amended from time to time’ states that an appeal body “must be managerially and organisationally independent of any operator and any affiliate of an operator”, basically this means that a rail operator cannot assess penalty fare appeals. As an independent appeals body, Penalty Services is therefore engaged by rail operators to hear appeals on their behalf.
A strict code of practice that is derived from the law, conditions of travel and rail operators penalty fares schemes is used to consistently assess appeals on behalf of rail passengers. No charge for this service is made to the passenger.
Penalty Services does not issue Penalty Fare Notices, this is the responsibility of the train operating companies and their agents. Whilst we can uphold appeals against Penalty Fare Notices we cannot directly cancel Penalty Fare Notices.
Penalty Services has no part in the debt recovery, payment or refund process and cannot process payments or refunds on behalf of any train operating company. We would normally advise that you contact the train company or their debt recovery agent who are responsible for this to address these issues.
Penalty Services does not employ the personnel who are licensed to issue penalty fares and we have no authority to handle any staff or service complaints. We would normally advise that you should contact the train company’s customer services team to address these issues.
Appeals must be made in writing online here:
Or by post to: Penalty Services, 12 Deben Mill Business Centre, Old Maltings Approach, Woodbridge, IP12 1BL
You can download an Appeal Form here.
You should explain why you were unable to produce a valid ticket or other authority to travel and provide any further information or evidence to support your explanation when appealing within 21 days beginning the day after you received your notice. The Assessor will not be able to obtain evidence or contact witnesses on your behalf so it is important that you include everything that you feel will help to support your appeal.
Please ensure you apply adequate postage to your letter as we do not pay excess postage fees and we will not receive your appeal.
Appeals must be made in writing online here:
Or by post to: Penalty Services, 12 Deben Mill Business Centre, Old Maltings Approach, Woodbridge, IP12 1BL
If you wish to make an appeal on behalf of someone else, you may download an Appeal Form here.
If you are appealing on behalf of someone else, in order to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR), you will need to either declare yourself as the parent/guardian of an under 18 year old, or, provide evidence of their consent or, provide a copy of your authority to act on their behalf before your appeal can be processed. The need to provide authority also includes if you are a parent/guardian of a passenger who is 18 years or older. If authority to act on behalf of the named person on the notice is authorised by a document such as a Power of Attorney or Court of Protection, you will need to submit a copy of this authority.
You should explain why the person you are appealing for was unable to produce a valid ticket or other authority to travel and provide any further information or evidence to support your explanation when appealing within 21 days beginning the day after you received your notice. The Assessor will not be able to obtain evidence or contact witnesses on your behalf so it is important that you include everything that you feel will help to support your appeal.
Please ensure you apply adequate postage to your letter as we do not pay excess postage fees and we will not receive your appeal.
Whilst Penalty Fare Regulations say that the person who received the penalty fare notice is entitled to appeal by sending a written statement explaining why they should not have to pay the Penalty Fare Notice, if you are under the age of 18 years, rather than submitting an appeal yourself, we would advise that you need to share the fact that you have been issued with a Penalty Fare Notice with a parent or guardian and let them appeal on your behalf.
See the section above – How do I appeal for someone else who has been issued a Penalty Fare?
No – There is no phone line for Penalty Services.
As outlined in The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018 as amended from time to time, SCHEDULE 2 Item 1. Appeals must be made in writing.
You may raise an appeal online at our website here:
Or by post to: Penalty Services, 12 Deben Mill Business Centre, Old Maltings Approach, Woodbridge, IP12 1BL
See the above FAQ item – How do I make an appeal?
No – There is no direct email address for raising an appeal.
As outlined in The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018 as amended from time to time, SCHEDULE 2 Item 1. Appeals must be made in writing.
You may raise an appeal online at our website here:
Or by post to: Penalty Services, 12 Deben Mill Business Centre, Old Maltings Approach, Woodbridge, IP12 1BL
See the above FAQ item – How do I make an appeal?
Yes you can!
When appealing online you can take the option to get letters from Penalty Services by email as soon as the appeal decision is complete! When choosing to get your reply by email, we will send a verification link to your preferred email address.
When you click the ‘single use’ link you will be automatically returned to the appeal process to complete your appeal. From this point on, we will send correspondence by email rather than waiting for the post!
We advise that you add our email address ‘noreply@penaltyservices.co.uk’ or/and our domain ‘penaltyservices.co.uk’ to your online email address book and where possible to your email safe senders list to prevent our correspondence going to spam/trash.
Please be aware that where your email service provider diverts mail to spam/trash it is only kept for a limited time which can be as little as 10 days!
Penalty Services is not responsible for the maintenance and management of your email service.
Penalty Services will take up to 2 weeks but no longer than 3 weeks to investigate and respond to your appeal. When an appeal decision has been reached we will let you know by your preferred method (email or post).
Penalty Fare Regulation say that the 21 days to pay the reduced amount takes no account of any time on appeal.
This means that if a person appeals against the issue of a Penalty Fare Notice, a “stop the clock” policy is observed on the 21 days to pay the lower penalty fare. The 21 days will restart when the appeal process is complete and the person’s appeal has either been finally disposed of or withdrawn.
Each penalty fare notice indicates the time available for appeal, 21 days from day after the date of the notice. Appeals received outside of the stated deadline cannot be considered without mitigating circumstances and in most cases the right to appeal is effectively forfeited.
If you have received a letter about an incident of which you know nothing, AND THE LETTER IS ADDRESSED TO YOU, then please phone the number shown on the letter. You may have to write to the company who sent the letter with evidence explaining the circumstances. It could be that an “imposter” has used your identity.
You should not open post that is not addressed to you, indeed you are breaking the law if you open someone else’s mail. You must return it to the Post Office by writing on the envelope “Not At This Address” and putting it unopened in any post box (No stamp required). If the person to whom the letter is addressed is known to you or you are aware of their correct or forwarding address then please also write on the reverse of the envelope the address that you believe to be correct for the person concerned.
You may not have been issued with a Penalty Fare. Train Companies operate a variety of other enforcement methods to report and deal with fare evasion. Our offices will not be able to help you if you do not have a notice reference number. You may contact the relevant Train Company customer services department by using the links provided on our home page.
If you have already made an appeal for your Penalty Fare Notice either online or by post, you can carry out an online check here by following the instructions on the page. Where an appeal is already in progress you will be shown details of the appeal and will be able to get more information on the status of your appeal.
Each Train Company publishes their Revenue Protection Policy on their own website. Check here and select the Train Company with which you travelled. Then navigate to their own website and search for “revenue protection” to show their policy.
If you have appealed and are unhappy with the outcome then you have the right to have your case re-heard by Penalty Services and you may submit a second appeal. If you are still unhappy with the outcome of your second appeal, you may lastly have your appeal heard by a 3rd stage independent appeal panel who’s decision is final. Please check the “How do I make an appeal?” section of the FAQ for making further appeals.
Our Assessors consider the facts and evidence presented and must come to a conclusion based on this information. If no further evidence over and above an earlier appeal for the same notice is presented, it is unlikely that the outcome will change. All cases are assessed in accordance with an approved assessment criteria ensuring all appeals are considered fairly and consistently.
The law as written in ‘The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018 as amended from time to time’ allows for a 3rd stage appeal for penalty fares. The panel hearing 3rd stage appeals comprises of three decision makers who must be managerially and organisationally be independent of any operator and any affiliate of an operator and independent of the panels which considered the first and second stage appeals; that is to say they must not contain any person who was involved in the decision of the first and second stage appeals. Every decision maker must give a decision on the appeal. If the decision makers cannot reach a unanimous decision to allow, or not allow, an appeal the decision may be made by a majority of those decision makers.
The third stage appeals panel though independent of the first and second stage appeal body is able to use the administration capabilities of the first and second stage appeals body in order to access appeals data and correspond with appellants.
Penalty Services ensures that all appeals are fairly and consistently assessed in accordance with an approved assessment criteria. However, if you remain unhappy with the outcome of an appeal and you believe that Penalty Services has failed to process your appeal correctly then you may refer the matter to either Transport Focus or London Travel Watch as appropriate. Both act as independent statutory bodies to protect the interests of passengers. Although they are unable to overturn an appeal decision made by Penalty Services, they will consider whether Penalty Services have acted correctly in their handling of your appeal.
Our Data Protection page gives our Data Protection Statement and outlines all the information that we hold and how it is managed. All personal information held by Penalty Services is available to you online. To access this information and to check the status of your appeal go to the Make an Appeal page on our web site and follow the instructions to track an existing appeal.
We strive to ensure that making an appeal or checking your appeal status with our online process is always available and is error free. However, if you encounter a problem using the website, please contact our Web Site Issues team.
Make sure you tell the team the name of the train operating company who issued the Penalty Fare Notice and give your Penalty Fare Notice reference number.
Include any other information that helps describe the problem you are having with the appeals web site that may help the team answer your query.
Send your query by email to web-site-issues@penaltyservices.co.uk. Remember, the better the information you send in, the quicker the team can understand and help to resolve your problem.
Whilst we take all web site feedback seriously and endeavour to resolve all problems as quickly as possible, we do not need to contact back everyone that raises such an issue and therefore you may not get a reply.
DO NOT USE THIS EMAIL ADDRESS FOR:
CONTACT ABOUT YOUR APPEAL. For GDPR reasons, the Web Site Issues team cannot see the content of your appeal. If you wish to raise an appeal against your Penalty Fare Notice, please use the details provided on your Penalty Fare Notice and either appeal in writing or online as directed. This email address will not respond to any requests other than raising an issue concerning the Penalty Services web site.
PAYMENT QUERIES. Payment for penalty fares notices is a separate process to appeals and is managed by the train operating company or their debt recovery agent. Penalty Services cannot answer any queries of this nature.