Thameslink Penalty Fare from tired stupidity

[Banbadle]

I was getting a Thameslink train from Finsbury Park towards Peterborough this morning. Tired and late I was running to my train and made it to the platform with about 30 seconds. The second I stepped on the train, I pressed "Pay with PayPal" on my phone to buy the ticket on trainline and shut my eyes to rest.

Fast forward to the ticket inspector, i opened my phone to show the ticket and it was the PayPal login screen. Whoops. Total idiocy from me to not remember the pay button does not pay by itself. The inspector was obviously not sympathetic, and I obviously got slapped with a penalty Fare

Before I waste their time with 3 appeals, is this even remotely worth appealing? Never had any train issues before but being dumb like this seems explicitly like the thing they'll never accept. I really don't have the money for this but my memory is so bad I feel id be at serious risk of forgetting to pay if I appeal it pointlessly.

 

[AlterEgo]

The only appeal ground you may have is technical, for example if the notice was filled out incorrectly. But, other than that, no - you had no ticket, and were correctly Penalty Fared for that.

Penalty Fare Notices have to be issued in line with the Penalty Fares Regulations to be valid and may be appealed if they are not. If you post your notice with your details blacked out, we can see if it does meet the Regulations.

 

[John R]

Unless there is a technical deficiency with the PF notice then no, you were caught without a valid ticket, and were probably lucky to get a PF and not a referral for prosecution.

In appealing based on it being an “honest mistake” you need to remember that someone looking to fare dodge could deliberately do what you did, to give a plausible excuse if an inspector turned up, and then buy a “short ticket” to get through the gateline at their destination.

The other point to note is that even if the transaction had gone through “the second you got on the train” that was still too late. You need to buy before you board, and it is still likely that the inspector would have taken action against you, as their machines automatically check the time the ticket was issued and the departure time of the train from that station and flag any irregularities.

 

[Banbadle]

The only appeal ground you may have is technical, for example if the notice was filled out incorrectly. But, other than that, no - you had no ticket, and were correctly Penalty Fared for that.

Penalty Fare Notices have to be issued in line with the Penalty Fares Regulations to be valid and may be appealed if they are not. If you post your notice with your details blacked out, we can see if it does meet the Regulations.

Yeah I figured, it was a stupid mistake from me. Thanks anyway.

I'll post them here but I highly doubt it, all the details seems correct to me

 

[Egg Centric]

I was getting a Thameslink train from Finsbury Park towards Peterborough this morning. Tired and late I was running to my train and made it to the platform with about 30 seconds. The second I stepped on the train, I pressed "Pay with PayPal" on my phone to buy the ticket on trainline and shut my eyes to rest.

Fast forward to the ticket inspector, i opened my phone to show the ticket and it was the PayPal login screen. Whoops. Total idiocy from me to not remember the pay button does not pay by itself. The inspector was obviously not sympathetic, and I obviously got slapped with a penalty Fare

Before I waste their time with 3 appeals, is this even remotely worth appealing? Never had any train issues before but being dumb like this seems explicitly like the thing they'll never accept. I really don't have the money for this but my memory is so bad I feel id be at serious risk of forgetting to pay if I appeal it pointlessly.

WRT general question - there is a reason if you appeal you can't be prosecuted (but can be sued) for it. So in that particular sense it's always worth a hopeless appeal so long as you value your time doing it less than the effort of doing so. This will largely depend upon whether you enjoy it or not.

WRT your question specifically - when you say "the direction of Peterborough" - was that your final destination? And can you confirm that you were fined between Knebworth and Stevenage? I suspect everything's fine tbh and only the above general ground exists, but worth asking. And do you have KeyGo? (I'm not sure what Smart CBB fare is for those wondering where I'm going with this)

 

[Banbadle]

WRT general question - there is a reason if you appeal you can't be prosecuted (but can be sued) for it. So in that particular sense it's always worth a hopeless appeal so long as you value your time doing it less than the effort of doing so. This will largely depend upon whether you enjoy it or not.

WRT your question specifically - when you say "the direction of Peterborough" - was that your final destination? And can you confirm that you were fined between Knebworth and Stevenage? I suspect everything's fine tbh and only the above general ground exists, but worth asking. And do you have KeyGo? (I'm not sure what Smart CBB fare is for those wondering where I'm going with this)

With the amount of issues I've had with Thameslink trains the last year (still waiting on a refund for a ticket the night of the the CrowdStrike issues last year) I'm more than okay being a general nuisance to them for a while if I can remember and I'm not going to screw my life up.

Final destination was Peterborough, was getting off at Stevenage and Knebworth seems about right. Not got KeyGo, not even heard of it before now. Are they worth the hassle?

 

[WesternLancer]

I was getting a Thameslink train from Finsbury Park towards Peterborough this morning. Tired and late I was running to my train and made it to the platform with about 30 seconds. The second I stepped on the train, I pressed "Pay with PayPal" on my phone to buy the ticket on trainline and shut my eyes to rest.

Fast forward to the ticket inspector, i opened my phone to show the ticket and it was the PayPal login screen. Whoops. Total idiocy from me to not remember the pay button does not pay by itself. The inspector was obviously not sympathetic, and I obviously got slapped with a penalty Fare

Before I waste their time with 3 appeals, is this even remotely worth appealing? Never had any train issues before but being dumb like this seems explicitly like the thing they'll never accept. I really don't have the money for this but my memory is so bad I feel id be at serious risk of forgetting to pay if I appeal it pointlessly.

Obviously be aware of the 50% prompt payment discount. An appeal pauses this whilst it is being considered but don’t miss any deadlines .

 

[Hadders]

How did you get through the barriers at Finsbury Park without a ticket?

Or did you come up the stairs from the underground?

 

[Banbadle]

How did you get through the barriers at Finsbury Park without a ticket?

Or did you come up the stairs from the underground?

Yeah came out of the underground, I exclude it from my journey because it's so awkward disputing things without an E Ticket

 

[Hadders]

However unintentional, you committed a criminal offence by boarding the train without a valid ticket.

A Penalty Fare is an appropriate remedy in a case like this and I recommend paying it to benefit from the reduced rate.

 

[AlterEgo]

The penalty fare looks compliant to me and it doesn’t appear the notice has any issues, so I’d recommend paying the notice promptly to secure the £50 discount.

 

[Egg Centric]

Final destination was Peterborough, was getting off at Stevenage and Knebworth seems about right. Not got KeyGo, not even heard of it before now. Are they worth the hassle?

I was asking because I was (and still am) confused about something which doesn't matter anyway so is irrelevant to this case.

From what you've said about your view of GTR, you may feel it's worth appealing for the "meta" reasons given (i.e. basically just for fun or to hope they screw something up) but I agree with everyone else you're bang to rights and shouldn't expect anything other than having to pay at the end and the rational thing to do is just pay it.