New penalty fare rail routes introduced by Northern

Northern (previously Northern Rail) is introducing more penalty fare routes across the network.

Penalty fares are designed to stop people travelling on trains without paying for their tickets first and will be put into place on a number of new routes from mid-May.

The fines will be £20 or double the cost of a single fare (whichever is biggest) and will be enforced at destination stations.

Penalty fares have been in place across the UK rail network for several years, and were introduced to Northern’s routes with a trial in West Yorkshire. Following the trial, penalty fares were rolled out in Cumbria.

The new routes which are set to ‘go live’ next week.

The routes to be introduced are:

• Newcastle to Carlisle

• Middlesbrough to Saltburn

• Darlington to Middlesbrough

• Doncaster to Scunthorpe

Stations on penalty fare routes will have either ticket offices or ticket vending machines and so customers will be able to buy tickets before they travel.

In addition, tickets may be bought at any time before a customer boards a train by using the Northern App, which has no booking fees.

If ticket machines aren't available at stations, or if offices are closed, customers will still be able to buy a ticket from the on-board conductor.

If customers board from stations with ticket machines or staffed ticket offices, but do not have a valid ticket, they may be issued with a fine if they are found by a ticket collector.

However, the company says they will ensure that no-one faces unfair penalties. Where customers do feel a penalty fare has been applied wrongly there is an independent appeals process.