“it's really so much easier to just pay it - and quickly,before it doubles.”
— Mumsnet, 10 October 2025
TfL PCN challenge: what a Transport for London PCN is, and the dates that matter
A TfL PCN is a penalty charge notice from Transport for London: £160 on a red route, due within 28 days and cut to £80 if you pay within 14 or 21 days, as the notice says; if you challenge instead, London Tribunals allowed 2,818 of 6,473 appeals against TfL in 2024-25.
Five TfL schemes, five rulebooks. Your notice says which.
Counted the way the regulations count, where the day of service is day 1. Nothing stored, no email asked for.
To pay, use Transport for London's own service — it is the cheapest thing on this page and it is free to reach: Pay a TfL red route PCN. To challenge it, TfL's own representation page and that costs nothing either. Both read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
A TfL PCN challenge costs nothing at any stage, and neither does the appeal to London Tribunals that follows it. TfL calls the paper a Transport for London penalty charge notice; drivers call it a TfL PCN. Same notice, same 28-day clock.
Paying quickly is often right. But “it” is one of five different schemes with five different rulebooks, and TfL publishes each one on its own page. This page starts from the notice instead: tell us the date printed on it and you get your dates, the scheme router, and the free route TfL runs.
What follows is the part neither of those pages tells you: how the discount is actually counted, what happens to it if you challenge, and what your next four deadlines are.
A TfL PCN, the dates that matter
- Day 14, or day 21 if the notice says so: pay half. On a red route that is £80, not £160. (TfL, paying a red route PCN)
- Challenge inside that window and TfL suspends the PCN. If it says no and you pay, the discount period picks up where it stopped. (TfL, making a representation)
- Day 28: the last day to pay in full or make a representation. That is TfL's word for a challenge. (TfL, making a representation)
- Ignore it and a charge certificate follows: the red route £160 becomes £240. If TfL rejects your challenge, you have 28 days to appeal to London Tribunals. (TfL, paying a red route PCN, TfL, making a representation)
- Congestion Charge or ULEZ, not parking: £180, or £90 if paid within 14 days. The same 28 days apply. (TfL, Congestion Charge penalties, TfL, ULEZ penalties)
If TfL says no: the free route past the second no
A Notice of Rejection is where people stop. It opens the one stage where an independent adjudicator reads your case. TfL then has to argue its side or let it go.
Appeal to London Tribunals, free. The 28 days begin with the date the rejection is served. The adjudicator may allow longer. GOV.UK puts it as “After you’ve received the notice, you have 28 days to make an appeal.” and the tribunal says “There are no fees or charges involved in submitting an appeal to the tribunal.”
Rule: The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (Representations and Appeals) (England) Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/576). Sources: GOV.UK, Appeal against a penalty charge notice and London Tribunals, Costs, read at source 26/09/2026.
In 2024-25 the adjudicators at London Tribunals decided 6,473 appeals against Transport for London PCNs. That count is parking, bus lane and moving traffic together. They allowed 2,818, which is 43.5%. The tribunal counts 1,997 of them as allowed because TfL did not contest them: 30.9% of every decision. Across London, every authority and TfL together, the figures were 45.3% allowed and 25.5% not contested. That uncontested share is the test of an authority’s own case: TfL did not argue 30.9% of its decided appeals at all.
| TfL, 2024-25 | Total decisions | Appeals allowed | Of which not contested | Appeals refused |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parking | 4,125 | 1,829 | 1,282 | 2,296 |
| Bus lanes | 171 | 95 | 72 | 76 |
| Moving traffic | 2,177 | 894 | 643 | 1,283 |
| All three | 6,473 | 2,818 (43.5%) | 1,997 (30.9%) | 3,655 |
| London, every authority and TfL | 42,907 | 19,454 (45.3%) | 10,962 (25.5%) | 23,453 |
Source: London Tribunals, Environment and Traffic appeal statistics 2024-25 (xlsx), the sheet “Total (Parking, BL, MT)”, read at source 26/09/2026. The tribunal’s own note on that sheet: “Allowed” includes “DNCs”, the appeals the authority did not contest.
Form TE9 goes to the Traffic Enforcement Centre, with form TE7 if you are late. The order comes when a Charge Certificate goes unpaid. GOV.UK: “You’ll have 21 days to pay the penalty charge notice (PCN) or challenge a court order demanding payment (known as an ‘order of recovery’).” The TE9 is a witness statement on the grounds the form lists:
- you did not receive the Notice to Owner or the PCN
- you made representations within 28 days of the Notice to Owner and had no rejection
- you appealed within 28 days of the rejection and had no response
- you paid the penalty charge in full
For a parking PCN, the form says to tick one. Past the 21 days, form TE7 asks for more time. The fees order charges nothing for that extension: “No fee is payable on: an application for an extension of time to serve a statutory declaration or a witness statement in connection with any such order”. The TE9 form itself names no fee.
For a moving traffic PCN, GOV.UK names form PE3 instead, and a low emission zone PCN takes the PE3 too. This page does not sort TfL’s red route and congestion charge PCNs between the two forms, so read the notes on the form before you file.
Sources: GOV.UK, If you get a court order, GOV.UK, Form TE9, GOV.UK, Form TE7 and The Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008, Schedule 1, fee 8.10, read at source 26/09/2026.
TfL PCN: case card, read 26/09/2026 London Tribunals, 2024-25, parking, bus lane and moving traffic appeals together: Transport for London: 2,818 of 6,473 appeals allowed (43.5%); 1,997 not contested by the authority (30.9% of decisions) London, every authority and TfL: 19,454 of 42,907 allowed (45.3%); 10,962 not contested (25.5%) After a Notice of Rejection: 28 days to appeal to London Tribunals, free. After an Order for Recovery: 21 days to file form TE9 at the Traffic Enforcement Centre, with form TE7 if later. Sources: London Tribunals appeal statistics: https://www.londontribunals.gov.uk/about/annual-reports-and-appeal-statistics London Tribunals, costs: https://www.londontribunals.gov.uk/eat/costs GOV.UK, if you get a court order: https://www.gov.uk/appeal-against-a-penalty-charge-notice/court-order Page: appealsdesk.co.uk/council-pcn/tfl
Which TfL scheme issued this? That is the question no page starts from
TfL publishes each of its schemes on its own page, and the search that brought you here is answered by those pages down to the first independent result. Not one of them starts from the notice in your hand. Five schemes, five rulebooks, and the code printed on your notice tells you which:
If your vehicle is involved in a contravention on the red route, you'll be sent a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for £160. ... If you pay this within 14 or 21 days (it will say on the PCN), the amount will be reduced to £80.
— TfL's own page for this scheme, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
Penalty charge £180 / If paid within 14 days £90 / Charge Certificate £270
— TfL's own page for this scheme, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
Penalty charge £180 / If paid within 14 days £90
— TfL's own page for this scheme, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
£500, if paid within 14 days £250 / £1000, if paid within 14 days £500 / £2000, if paid within 14 days £1000
— TfL's own page for this scheme, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
Penalty charge £550, if paid within 14 days £275
— TfL's own page for this scheme, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
The discount period every one of those schemes applies is the statutory one: the Department for Transport's Statutory guidance for local authorities in England on civil enforcement of parking contraventions, read at source Tue, 3 November 2026, states it plainly: “Where the enforcement authority receives full payment within 14 days of the service of the PCN, it must accept the discounted amount.”
Every amount above is quoted from TfL's own page for that scheme, linked beside it, and read at source on the date shown. They are not the same amount and they are not close to each other — which is why “a TfL PCN” is not one thing, and why the figure printed on your own notice tells you which scheme you are in faster than any guide can. The 28-day representation clock is common to them; the grounds are not.
The statutory clock, from the regulation rather than from folklore
The discount runs to “the applicable date”, and the regulations define it in one sentence:
““the applicable date” means— (a) in the case of a penalty charge notice served by virtue of regulation 10(2)(a), the last day of the period of 21 days beginning with the date on which the notice is served; (b) in the case of any other notice, the last day of the period of 14 days beginning with the date on which the notice is served.”
— The Civil Enforcement of Road Traffic Contraventions (England) General Regulations 2022 (SI 2022/71) — checked 27/08/2026
“Beginning with the date on which the notice is served” means the day of service is day 1. A PCN served on 2 March reaches day 14 on 15 March — not 16 March. Your notice prints the exact date; where it differs from the one computed above, the notice is the authority. Read at legislation.gov.uk on Wed, 9 September 2026.
How to challenge it, and where a challenge actually goes
A written challenge, free. Send it in writing so there is a record, quote the PCN reference, and attach photographs and any receipt. This is the only challenge the statutory guidance asks the council to consider re-offering the discount after rejecting — and, as above, that is a recommendation to them and not a right you hold.
Formal representations. Once a Notice to Owner is served on the registered keeper, representations must be made within 28 days beginning with the date it was served, on the statutory grounds. Free, at the full charge. A postal camera PCN skips this stage and takes representations directly.
An independent adjudicator, free. A London PCN is heard by London Tribunals (Environment and Traffic Adjudicators); outside London, by the Traffic Penalty Tribunal. 28 days beginning with the date of service of the Notice of Rejection, and the adjudicator may allow longer. The adjudicator's decision binds the council.
What it costs to ignore it
Nothing happens quickly, and then several things happen at once. Past the discount window the charge is payable in full. Past the representations stage the council may serve a Charge Certificate, which increases the penalty by 50%, and then register it as a debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre — after which an order for recovery and, if that is not answered, enforcement agents' fees can be added on top. Where those notices did not reach you, the TEC witness-statement route above (form TE9 within 21 days of the order, with TE7 if you are out of time) exists for exactly that situation. Ignoring a PCN is the one route with no free stage in it.
What Transport for London itself publishes
Every line in this section comes from Transport for London's own website, with the address it came from and the day we read it. Nothing here is summarised from anywhere else, and nothing is a figure we worked out. The lines in quotation marks are quotations, word for word. 3 lines are not — they are a list, an address or a charges table set as prose by us, and each says so underneath.
“If your vehicle is involved in a contravention on the red route, you'll be sent a Penalty Charge Notice (PCN) for £160. You need to pay this within 28 days. If you pay this within 14 or 21 days (it will say on the PCN), the amount will be reduced to £80.”
— quoted from Transport for London, its own website, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
For bus lanes, box junctions, banned turns and parking (CCTV) PCNs — Within 28 days of receiving your PCN.
— transcribed from Transport for London's own page — the page it is on, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
You can lodge an online or written appeal with London Tribunals within 28 days of receiving a Notice of Rejection letter from us. ... London Tribunals, PO Box 460, Hartlepool, TS24 4JE
— transcribed from Transport for London's own page — the page it is on, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
“You have 28 days from the date of service of your PCN to either: Pay the penalty or Challenge the PCN... If you pay within 14 days of the date of service you will receive a 50% discount”
— quoted from Transport for London, its own website, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
“you have 28 days from the date of service of the PCN to get your representation to us”
— quoted from Transport for London, its own website, read at source Wed, 9 September 2026.
“If we receive your representation within the discount period the PCN will be suspended. If we don't agree with your representation and you decide to pay the PCN, then the discount period will resume from the point at which it was suspended.”
— quoted from Transport for London, its own website, read at source Mon, 19 October 2026.
If you haven't paid, contacted us or if you haven't responded to the notice of rejection then you'll receive a charge certificate. The charge associated with the PCN then increases to £240.
— transcribed from Transport for London's own page — the page it is on, read at source Mon, 19 October 2026.
What this page does not tell you, and why
We publish what we have read at source and nothing else. These are the things we looked for on Transport for London's own website and did not find, written down rather than filled in:
- A single TfL page that starts from the notice in your hand. TfL publishes each scheme separately and each has its own charge and its own rulebook — which is the gap this page exists to fill, and the reason the router above comes before anything else.
Council PCN or private parking charge? The routes never touch
The words on the paper decide. “Penalty Charge Notice” is a statutory penalty from a council or TfL — this page. “Parking Charge Notice” is a private company's invoice, appealed to the operator and then to POPLA or the IAS: look the operator up among the 217 we hold, or use the private parking deadline calculator.
Want help writing the challenge? The letter is free: an example challenge letter for a red route or council PCN, on screen, to copy and fill in. No payment, no account, no email address.
Open the free TfL challenge letterQuestions people ask
These are the questions Google publishes underneath the search this page is written for, measured on 9 and 10 September 2026. Each one is answered here in a sentence, and where we hold no source for an answer the sentence says so instead of guessing.
How can I appeal a TfL penalty charge notice?
You appeal a TfL penalty charge notice by making representations to Transport for London first, and then free to London Tribunals within 28 days if TfL rejects them.
How to win a PCN appeal?
To win a PCN appeal, answer the contravention on its own terms — the signs and lines at that location, the timing on the camera evidence, the loading or blue badge exemption you relied on — and make the representations in writing inside the statutory window.
How long does it take for a TfL penalty fare appeal response?
We have not verified this yet. We do not know how long a TfL penalty fare appeal response takes, because TfL publishes no such figure — and a penalty fare is in any case a different thing from the road-traffic penalty charge notice this page is about; the fixed date on a TfL PCN is the 28 days you get to reach London Tribunals after a rejection.
What's the best excuse to appeal a parking ticket?
There is no best excuse to appeal a parking ticket: an adjudicator decides on the statutory grounds and the evidence, so the signs, the lines, the exemption and the camera timings are what carry an appeal, not the reason you were there.
What happens if I don't pay a TfL fine?
What happens if you don't pay a TfL fine is fixed by statute rather than left to TfL: the charge rises after 28 days, a notice to owner follows, and an unpaid charge order can be registered at the Traffic Enforcement Centre and passed to enforcement agents.
How can I check if I have any fines on my car?
To check whether you have fines on your car you have to ask each issuer separately — councils and TfL each hold their own PCN records against the registration, and private operators hold theirs — because there is no single national register of parking charges.
Is a TfL fine a criminal record?
A TfL fine is not a criminal record: a penalty charge notice is a civil penalty under road traffic law, decided by an adjudicator rather than a magistrate, and it appears on no criminal record.
How much is a TfL penalty charge?
We have not verified this yet. We do not publish TfL penalty charge amounts because they are set by charging orders and vary by contravention; the figure on your notice is the authority, and a windscreen PCN carries a 50% discount for 14 days.