Penalty Fare Notices, in differing formats, are issued for a variety of reasons. One example of this is when transport providers operate Penalty Fare Schemes as part of their overall Revenue Protection strategy to reduce ticketless travel. On routes where stops are frequent and trains or buses are busy, it's not always possible to check every passenger’s ticket between every station or every bus stop.
Where such Penalty Fare schemes apply, a valid ticket or other authority to travel must be displayed or made available for inspection when requested. Failure to either advance-purchase correctly or, failure to buy correctly from available ticket purchasing facilities before travelling may make a person liable to pay a penalty fare.
A Penalty Fare Notice must be paid or appealed against within the stated time in order to avoid further costs or action being taken by the Transport for London to recover the debt.
Transports for London (TfL) notices are issued in accordance with the Greater London Authority Act, 1999. Please visit Documents for further information.
The issue of a notice can occur when a passenger is unable to present a valid ticket or other valid authority to travel when requested to do so. A ticket will be considered invalid for a number of reasons including; presented without supporting document (e.g. valid railcard or photocard), out of date or, in the case of Oyster cards; for being un-validated or without sufficient funds.
A valid ticket must be presented when travelling. Clear advice and instruction in this respect is given at the point of ticket purchase. If you neglect to carry your valid ticket with you when travelling or, if you fail to collect a valid ticket prior to departure then you will be treated as having joined the service without a valid ticket regardless of any supporting evidence you present. To avoid potential fraudulent use, receipts, print-outs and booking reference numbers are not accepted for travel on their own and it is only the actual valid ticket that will be accepted.
Appeals must be put in writing and cannot be made by telephone or in person. Appeals can be made online from Make an Appeal, where you may also download an Appeal Form for post or fax appeal purposes.
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. The Appeals Administrator will not be able to contact witnesses on your behalf so it is important that you include everything that you feel will help to support your appeal.
It is in your best interest to send everything together when appealing but, if you do send anything separately, it must be within the 14 day period of time allowed for appeal and it must clearly be marked with the relevant penalty fare notice number for cross referencing purposes.
Appeals Administrators will consider your appeal facts and evidence. Please ensure that you include all the details and all the supporting evidence at the time of appealing. You may upload documents at the appropriate point when appealing through this site.
You if are experiencing technical issues please contact our helpdesk at ashelpdesk@ital-uk.com. You will receive a response within 1 working day. Please do not use this email address to submit an appeal.
The timeframe for second and third stage appeals is within 14 days which begins the day after the date of the letter informing the appellant of the decision to turn down their previous appeal.
The above timeframe is designed to provide sufficient time for an appellant to be made aware of the outcome of a previous appeal and to compose an appeal and for that appeal to be received by TfL. Any appeal received outside of this deadline will be considered ‘out of time’ in accordance with Transport for London’s Appeal Policy for Penalty Fares (Section 2.1 Out of Time Appeals).
Appeals received outside of the stated deadline cannot be considered without mitigating circumstances and in most cases the right to appeal is effectively forfeited.
Online payment is available by using ‘Make a Payment’ or by visiting www.ircas.co.uk direct. IRCAS accept all major credit and debit cards
You can call our Automated Payment Line on 0870 067 1303 to pay your balance in full with any major credit or debit card. Calls to our 0844 numbers cost 5p per minute (ppm), 0845 numbers cost 7ppm, 0871 numbers cost 10ppm and 0870 numbers cost 13ppm; all plus your network access charge(s).
Alternatively, you may post cheques or postal orders to IRCAS, Regus, Building 1000 Lakeside, Western Road, Portsmouth, PO6 3EZ. Please ensure that you make cheques and postal orders payable to IRCAS and that you write the number of your Penalty Fare Notice or Unpaid Fare Notice on the reverse. Please ensure that you keep the Postal Order receipt for reference. It is your responsibility to ensure that postal payments are received in time and to obtain proof of posting.
You can track an appeal by using the email account details and password created at the first stage.
Failure to make payment or to appeal further within the given time may result in the issue of a Reminder Letter to which administration fees will be applied.
IRCAS, working on behalf of Transport for London (TfL), will produce Reminder Letters and Final Reminder Letters on outstanding cases and, if necessary, refer cases for external debt collection consideration.
Failure to re-appeal in the allowed time means that the right to further appeal has therefore been forfeited and it is now necessary to pay the full outstanding balance (including any administration fees) in order to avoid further action being taken by Transport for London to recover the debt.
Responses to second stage appeals are thorough and will explain if any further action is required of you. However, if you remain unhappy with the outcome of your appeal following this stage then you may appeal for a third and final time. Third stage penalty fare appeals will be considered by an Independent Appeals Panel in line with TfL penalty fare appeal policy, details will be provided in your appeal response.
If you believe that there has been a failure on our part to process your appeal correctly, you may wish to refer your case in writing to:- London Travel Watch, 169 Union Street, London, SE1 0LL; web: www.londontravelwatch.org.uk; e-mail to the following enquiries@londontravelwatch.org.uk
Your complaint regarding the quality of service you were provided with on the day can be made to TfL Customer Services, 4th Floor, 14 Pier Walk, London, SE10 0ES Tel: 0343 222 1234
All Penalty Fare appeals are handled in accordance with TfL’s Penalty Fare Appeals Policy. For more Information on the policy and how it affects you please use the following link: Penalty Fare Appeals Policy