In February my brother and I planned a trip from London to Margate. He bought both the tickets with his Network Railcard for £57.02 for the two but, at the last minute, wasn’t able to go so I travelled with a friend.
We were stopped by a Southeastern railway ticket inspector and told that in the absence of the Network Railcard and my brother, our tickets were invalid. We were told that we would each have to pay a full fare of £41.30 per ticket (£82.60 in total), on top of the tickets that had already been bought, taking the cost to £139.62 for the two of us. We paid and signed the paperwork we were given.
Soon afterwards, we received letters from Revenue Protection Support Services saying we owed a further £61.30 each. That is made up of another £41.30 and an additional penalty of £20 for not paying on time.
This was news to us. As far as we were aware the matter had been dealt with a month earlier. On finding the inspector’s paperwork I was able to see that the £82.60 was not the whole amount due, but only half. On top of buying a full price ticket we had also been fined the same amount again, and now had an additional penalty added for non-payment.
I spend my life reading contracts, but it seems both of us went ahead and signed what we had thought was simply a receipt of payment. At no point was the full figure of £165.20 mentioned. Had we been fully informed we could have made the decision to pay all at once.
On our return journey the conductor was sympathetic and simply charged us an extra £5.80 to top up our existing tickets. Our short journey from London to Margate has ended up costing £268.02. Must we pay? BF, London
You accept that you were to blame for travelling on discounted tickets without an accompanying Railcard, but the conductor should have spelled out what penalty was due and what you were signing.
Southeastern tells me that its penalty fares, which form part of the National Conditions of Carriage, are charged at twice the full single fare for the journey or £20, which ever is the greater amount. “All passengers are given the option of paying the full fine on the spot or half at a later stage,” says a spokesperson. “This is clearly outlined in the documents they are asked to sign.”
As a goodwill gesture it is waiving the £20-per-head late-penalty payment since you did not realise that you still owed half the fine, but you’ll have to stump up the remainder, however harsh it may seem, since by travelling on invalid tickets you were in breach of your contract with the rail company and could face legal proceedings if you refuse.
If you need help email Anna Tims at your.problems@observer.co.uk or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number.
