Here’s my Penalty Fare Notice story, hot off the press. And since it is #metalfriday I thought I’d bring Anthrax into it 🤘.

I had my £83.80 open return for Grateley-London. My usual taxi to get from Grateley to home couldn’t manage the pick up on time but could collect me at the next station down the line – Salisbury. I figured ‘OK, it’s one stop, presumably not the end of the world, I’m sure the staff at Salisbury will cut me some slack if needed.

Instead I met with a Revenue Protection Officer who did rather give me a sense of Judge Dredd as he moved swiftly from checking my ticket at the barrier to issue of a Penalty Fare Notice. I was told I could catch a train back to Grateley instead. Seemingly going an extra stop and then going back a stop on a subsequent train would have cancelled things out and avoided the Penalty Fare, but not getting the taxi.

It was an interesting conversation with my taxi driver on the way home as we processed it. There is first a sense of disappointment and indignation – railway staff are almost always pragmatic and accommodating and with a sense of recognising that we’re all in this together – the trains don’t always run on time, they can get cancelled and we all roll with the punches – including cutting passengers a bit of slack in return. That was what I’d naively assumed would be the case today before meeting Judge Dredd.

Then I figured, well – this guy was ‘doing what it says on the tin’ – his uniform said revenue protection officer so what else would he do but protect revenue – in this case the £4.20 for a single from Grateley to Salisbury, bumped up to £54.20 as a lesson for the future and boost to the rail operator coffers.

I’ll appeal when I get home, I thought. But then I thought, well, what am I appealing against? I’m a one stop fare dodger with a target on my back, what defence would I have? The law is the law. It would be a bit like getting a speeding ticket for doing 78 miles per hour on the motorway and arguing that I was almost within the law and expecting some trade-off with the fact that the day before I’d been delayed in traffic on the motorway so was just making up for it (swings and roundabouts).

So – I’ve paid the £54.20 and I wish Judge Dredd a good evening.

Does anyone else have Penalty Fare Notice stories to share?

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