Fare appeal

[appealfare]

I had a return ticket from Southend to Norwich. This failed at the barrier but the inspector let me through. I had a doubt regarding the validity of the ticket so I found another inspector on the platform to check my ticket using the hand held scanner to verify this. He told me my ticket was valid and so I boarded the train .It was checked by another inspector on the train between Colchester and Ipswich and I was issued a penalty fare because it was used a few weeks prior. His scanner showed that the ticket was rejected when scanned prior to journey at 10:28 am.

I have appealed this, what are my chances.

 

[Titfield]

If the ticket had been used previously then the appeal has no chance of success (except see below*)

If the ticket had not been used previously and was valid then a good chance of success.

*If the Penalty fare was deficient in some way then that may be grounds for a sucessfull appeal.

Please upload with personal details and reference numbers obscured so it can be assessed.

 

[appealfare]

If the ticket had been used previously then the appeal has no chance of success (except see below*)

If the ticket had not been used previously and was valid then a good chance of success.

*If the Penalty fare was deficient in some way then that may be grounds for a sucessfull appeal.

Please upload with personal details and reference numbers obscured so it can be assessed.

Thank you for your reply.

It was scanned by a inspector with a handheld scanner on the platform at Southend which is where I boarded the train and I was given the go ahead to board the train.

Will this be logged in this ticket history ,so I can prove that it was scanned at start of journey prior to boarding train and no fine was issued.

If I was made aware the ticket was already used ,I would have purchased a new ticket prior to starting journey.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Wednesday at 16:52 ==

Thank you for your reply.

It was scanned by a inspector with a handheld scanner on the platform at Southend which is where I boarded the train and I was given the go ahead to board the train.

Will this be logged in this ticket history ,so I can prove that it was scanned at start of journey prior to boarding train and no fine was issued.

If I was made aware the ticket was already used ,I would have purchased a new ticket prior to starting journey.

I had requested the inspector to scan it to make sure I held a valid ticket prior to boarding

 

[GadgetMan]

I had requested the inspector to scan it to make sure I held a valid ticket prior to boarding

Most people buy a return ticket and use it to travel outward and back.

'Some' people are in the habit of reusing the return portion again and again until it is stamped and/or scanned.

So were you trying to ascertain if your ticket had previously been scanned rather than previously used?

If so, I'd recommend paying the penalty fare as you don't want the train company to look into your.purchase history and find you purchase a return ticket followed by 'single' tickets in the outward direction within the validity period of the 'supposedly' unused return portion.


If however you genuinely are one of the few who sometimes gets a lift/bus/cycles/walks in the return direction then feel free to follow the advice of others as to whether to appeal or not.

 

[johnny_t]

Is your 'defence' that it hadn't been used a few weeks earlier, or that you didn't know it had been used a few weeks earlier ?

If the latter, and unless you have some convincing reasons why you lost track of your outbound / return journey pairs, then I'd be tempted to stop digging and pay up. It sounds like you've already appealed though, which may open you up to a bit more difficulty.

 

[AlterEgo]

I probably wouldn't have appealed this - the last thing you want is an audit of potentially reused return coupons, innocent or otherwise.