Penalty fare

Overview

A penalty fare, standard fare, or fixed penalty notice is a special, usually higher, fare charged because a passenger using public transport did not comply with the normal ticket purchasing rules. It should not be confused with an unpaid fares notice. Penalty fares are incurred when a ticket or a rail pass cannot be produced on request. If, for example a mobile device is inoperative and the ticket cannot be displayed a penalty fare can be issued. Contrary to popular belief, penalty fares cannot solely be avoided if tickets are purchased before commencing the journey; the offence under the (British) Railway Byelaws has nothing to do with purchase of tickets, it consists solely in the failure to produce a ticket and, where necessary a rail pass, at the time of request. Evidence of ticket purchase other than the ticket itself, is not relevant to the offence. Penalty fares are a civil debt, not a fine, and a person whose penalty fare is paid is not considered to have committed a criminal offence. Penalty fares are used to discourage casual fare evasion and disregard for the ticketing rules without resorting to (in the case of railways in Great Britain) the drastic and costly step of prosecution under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 or other laws dealing with theft and fraud. More egregious fare avoiders can still be prosecuted and fined or imprisoned if convicted.

History and legal status

Penalty fares were first introduced on British Rail's Network SouthEast services under the British Rail (Penalty Fares) Act 1989 (c. xvii). Over time they have been extended to cover many parts of the National Rail network. Initially the penalty fare was set at £10 or twice the full single fare to the next station (whichever was higher) in addition to the full single fare for the rest of the journey. In respect of England the amount is £100 plus the full single fare applicable, reduced to £50 plus that fare if paid before the end of the period of 21 days beginning with the day after the penalty fare was charged; no account is taken of time spent on appeal in calculating that period. Those amounts were substituted for England by the Railways (Penalty Fares) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 with effect from 23 January 2023; in Wales the amount remains £20 or twice the full single fare applicable, whichever is greater. Penalty fares on the National Rail network are authorised by section 130 of the Railways Act 1993 and are governed by the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018, which came into force on 6 April 2018 and revoked the Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 1994 and the Penalty Fares Rules made under them. The Regulations do not apply to services provided under a Scottish franchise agreement, to Scotland-only services, or to services provided by Transport for London or its subsidiaries. A penalty fare may be charged whether or not the passenger intended to travel without paying.

From January 2023, following a public consultation, the Department for Transport increased the penalty fare to £100 in England plus the cost of the unpaid ticket, under the Railways (Penalty Fares) (Amendment) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/1094). This is reduced to £50 plus the cost of the ticket if paid within 21 days.

Operation

Penalty fares can only be issued by authorised collectors, commonly known as revenue protection inspectors (RPIs), either on the train or at the destination station. Some RPIs receive commission on each penalty issued. RPIs are different from regular train conductors, who cannot issue penalty fares. Passengers unable to pay the fare on the spot are allowed to pay within 21 days. Where a collector proposes to charge a penalty fare, the passenger must give their name and address, and in England their date of birth, when required to do so; failing to do so is an offence punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale. The date-of-birth requirement was added for England with effect from 23 January 2023. Penalty fares cannot be issued in some circumstances, including: if passengers were unable to purchase a ticket due to faulty ticket machines or closed ticket offices, if warning notices are not displayed correctly, if the train or station is excluded from a penalty fares scheme, or if the National Rail Conditions of Carriage allow an excess fare to be paid. RPIs can use their discretion not to give penalty fares to passengers who may have greater difficulty in purchasing tickets e.g. elderly, disabled or pregnant passengers, those with learning difficulties, or those who do not understand English. Penalty Fares are only operated by certain Train Operating Companies (TOCs), these include C2C, Chiltern Railways, East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway (including Southern, Gatwick Express, Thameslink and Great Northern), Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Merseyrail, Northern, Southeastern, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express(Excluding Scotland), Transport for Wales (Between Shrewsbury and Birmingham and Carmarthen and Severn Tunnel Junction only) and West Midlands Trains (includes London Northwestern Railway and West Midlands Trains)

Appeals

An operator may not charge penalty fares at all unless it has arranged for an Appeal Panel and a Final Appeal Panel to hear appeals against them and has agreed to meet the cost of those appeals; a penalty fare charged when the operator does not satisfy those requirements is not payable. A body may act as an Appeal Panel only if it is managerially and organisationally independent of any operator and of any affiliate of an operator, and a Final Appeal Panel must in addition be independent of the panels that heard the earlier stages. There are three stages. A first-stage appeal must reach the Appeal Panel within 21 days of the day after the penalty fare was charged; a second-stage appeal within 14 days of receiving the first decision; and a final-stage appeal to the Final Appeal Panel within 14 days of receiving the second. Appeals must be made in writing, and a panel must decide within 21 days of receiving one. The grounds of appeal are exhaustive: that the penalty fare was not charged in accordance with the Regulations; that the appellant is not the person liable to pay it; that the appellant holds a season ticket valid for the journey but did not have it at the time; or that there are compelling reasons why the appellant should not be liable in the particular circumstances. A panel that finds a ground made out must allow the appeal, and one that does not must refuse it; there is no general discretion. Where the appellant makes representations about certain factual matters – which train they were on, where they boarded and intended to alight, and whether the exceptions in the Regulations applied – it is for the operator to provide evidence reasonably demonstrating that the appellant's account is untrue. If a panel allows an appeal, or fails to decide within its 21 days, the appellant is not liable to pay the penalty fare, and any amount already paid must be refunded within ten working days. For penalty fares charged at the England rates, however, the appellant remains liable for the full single fare for the journey. Lodging a first-stage appeal also restricts prosecution: proceedings for the offences listed in the Regulations – including those under section 5(3)(a) and (b) of the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, the railway byelaws, and in England section 11 of the Fraud Act 2006 – may then be brought for the same failure to produce a ticket only if the operator cancels the penalty fare before the panel decides or its time expires. Appeals are administered for the train operators by two companies: Penalty Services Ltd, which hears appeals for operators including East Midlands Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, Merseyrail, Northern, Southeastern, TransPennine Express, Transport for Wales, South Western Railway and the Tyne and Wear Metro, and the Appeal Service, operated by ITAL Group Limited, which also trades as the payment and collection service IRCAS. A passenger dissatisfied with the handling of an appeal may raise it with Transport Focus or London TravelWatch, neither of which can overturn the decision. A notice headed "Unpaid Fare Notice" is not a penalty fare and is not issued under the Regulations at all: it is a contractual notice raised under the operator's own conditions of carriage, so the exhaustive grounds, the independent panels, the reversed burden of proof and the time limits described above do not apply to it, and the statutory appeal route is not open to the person who receives one.

Compulsory ticket areas

Some penalty fares schemes include stations with compulsory ticket areas (CTAs), in which people without valid tickets or other authorities may be charged a penalty fare even if they have not travelled and if they do not intend to travel. These include Amersham, Aylesbury, Beaconsfield, Birmingham Moor Street, Birmingham Snow Hill, Chalfont and Latimer, Chorleywood, Derby, Ealing Broadway, Gerrards Cross, Greenford TfL station, Harrow on the Hill, High Wycombe, Leicester, London Marylebone, London St Pancras, Maidenhead, Nottingham, Rickmansworth, Sheffield, South Ruislip

Transport For London services

The London Regional Transport (Penalty Fares) Act 1992 and the Greater London Authority Act 1999 allows Transport for London to charge penalty fares under similar but not identical rules to those on National Rail services. Initially, the maximum penalty fare was set at £10 (£5 on buses and trams) or twice the full single fare to the next station (whichever is higher) in addition to the full single fare for the rest of the journey. It was later raised to £20 for all transport modes. On 11 January 2009, it was further raised to £50 on TfL services (Docklands Light Railway, the Emirates Air Line, London Buses, Tramlink, London Overground and London Underground) although like many other civil penalties in the UK, a 50% discount is applied for early payments (within 21 days). On 2 January 2012, all TfL modes have had a penalty fare of £80. From 4 March 2024, the penalty fare for all TfL services was raised from £80 to £100.

Light rail systems

In addition to the London services mentioned above, penalty fares apply on several other tram and metro systems in Great Britain, including the Midland Metro, Nottingham Express Transit (NET), and the Tyne and Wear Metro (NEXUS). NET have confirmed that their penalty fares are authorised by byelaws. Variations on the penalty fare are used by the Manchester Metrolink, which it calls a "standard fare", and by Edinburgh Trams, which calls it an "on-board fare".

Northern Ireland

Penalty Fares on buses and trains in Northern Ireland are applied in accordance with regulations made under the Transport Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.

Scotland

Scotland has its own legal system, and train services are overseen by a separate government body (Transport Scotland). ScotRail, the franchise that operates most of the trains in Scotland, does not issue penalty fares. ScotRail may collect details and send a bill for a ticket, plus an administration fee, but it rarely does so. Ticket inspectors are found on most trains, and passengers travelling without a ticket are expected to buy a ticket on the train. If a passenger had the opportunity to buy a ticket before they boarded the train (the station had a ticket machine or open ticket office), ScotRail's policy is that the passenger must buy a full-priced single ticket for their journey and not buy cheaper tickets such as cheap-day returns, senior citizen's tickets or use a Railcard to get a discount. However, Scotland has many unstaffed train stations that do not have ticket machines or with ticket offices sometimes closed. Then, the full range of tickets is available on the train. In England and Wales, holding an expired season ticket counts as travelling without a ticket, and passengers are liable to penalty fares or prosecution. In Scotland, passengers can renew weekly season tickets on the train. Monthly or annual season tickets are available only from staffed stations.

Republic of Ireland

Iarnród Éireann (Irish Rail) issues fixed payment notices on Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART), Commuter light rail, and InterCity services, per the Railway Safety Act 2005 (Fixed Payment Notice) Regulations 2006. Appeals must be made within 21 days and failure to pay may lead to a criminal conviction and a fine of up to €1,000 plus the cost of the unpaid fare. In 2014, fixed penalty notices were issued to 9,885 fare evaders, of which 356 were prosecuted in the District Court. The Luas tram service issues standard fares of €45 if paid within 14 days or €100 if paid after 14 days but before 28 days. This is regulated under Bye-Law 4 of the Light Railway (Regulation of Travel and Use) Bye-Laws 2015 S.I. No. 322 of 2015. Dublin Bus operates a similar standard fare penalty system, where a €100 penalty is reduced to €50 if paid within 21 days.

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, a penalty limit (maximum penalty) is stated by legislation: parallelly by the Road Transport Act (§ 18a of 111/1994 Sb.) for buses and by Rail Transport Act (§ 37 of 266/1994 Sb.) for trains, trams, trolleybuses and cableways (including aerial lifts). However, the wording of both these acts is co-ordinated. Penalty amount needs to be determined by the specific operator of the transport line or transport system in his Contractual Transport Conditions. The penalty is of private-law nature. To be not confused with public sanctions, they are called "surcharge" in legislation. River transport doesn't fall under this legal regulation, but the contractual terms are set similarly if the ferry or river line is integrated with other public transport. Since 1 May 2013, the maximum penalty was heightened from 1000 CZK to 1500 CZK. Main operators of urban transport usually use the maximum penalty as the basic variant, although a bit belatedly. E.g. in the Prague Integrated Transport, the penalty was heightened from 1000 CZK to 1500 CZK since 1 January 2014, in the city of Ústí nad Labem since 1 January 2016, in the city of Hradec Králové since 1 January 2017 etc. Usually, operators offer a penalty reduction for passengers:

who pay the fine immediately during the inspection (usually about 30−60 percent reduction) who have forgotten their long-term ticket or pay card at home and subsequently prove that they have purchased the fare before the inspection (e.g. in Prague, such passengers pay only a symbolic penalty 50 CZK instead of full 1500 CZK). Since 23 October 2017, Prague announced a special 50 percent penalty discount for such fare dodgers who will additionally purchase an all-year network ticket, and the action continues for 2018 and in January 2019, this measure has become permanent. The price of the all-year network ticket is very favourable, 3650 CZK (= 10 CZK per day). České dráhy as the main operator of railway passenger transport have the maximum penalty set to 1000 CZK, but it is reduced to 400 CZK if it is paid immediately. However, if the passenger preannounces to the conductor that he does not have a ticket, only 40 CZK handling surcharge applies. That's why the full penalty is very rarely applied. If the passenger has boarded at a stop where the ticket office is not open, the ticket can be purchased by the conductor without any surcharge. If the penalty is not paid immediately, the passenger is required to produce valid identification documents. If such identification is not provided, the conductor is instructed to contact the police for assistance.

Germany

Penalty fare ("erhöhtes Beförderungsentgelt") schemes in local transport (suburban rail, buses, underground trains) are administered by local transport authorities (Verkehrsverbund). The penalty fare is usually €60 or twice the ticket price (whichever is higher). Germany's principal InterCity TOC, DB Fernverkehr, introduced a penalty fare scheme in 2022. Historically, it was possible to buy tickets after boarding with a €17 surcharge. Since the beginning of 2022, passengers who boarded without a ticket will instead receive a penalty fare of twice the ticket price—with a minimum of €60.