Transport for London (26 001 698)
Category : Transport and highways > Public transport
Decision : Closed after initial enquiries
Decision date : 30 Jun 2026
The Ombudsman's final decision:
Summary: We cannot investigate this complaint about Transport for London’s handling of Miss X’s appeal against a penalty fare notice. This is because Miss X has made a claim against Transport for London in relation to the matter, at court.
The complaint
- Miss X complains Transport for London (TfL) provided inconsistent and unclear explanations about the reasons her payments for travelling on its rail network, failed. She says this led to confusion and prevented her from understanding or resolving the issue at an earlier stage. TfL issued Miss X a penalty fare notice for travelling without paying for her journey and dismissed her appeal. Miss X says the matter caused her distress, confusion, time and trouble. She also says she suffered a loss of earnings.
The Ombudsman’s role and powers
- The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
- The law says we cannot normally investigate a complaint when someone could take the matter to court. We may decide to investigate if we consider it would be unreasonable to expect the person to go to court but cannot investigate if the person has already been to court. (Local Government Act 1974, section 26(6)(c), as amended)
How I considered this complaint
- I considered information provided by Miss X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.
My assessment
- The information provided by Miss X confirms she has made a claim at court against TfL in relation to this matter. Because Miss X has commenced proceedings against TfL the restriction set out at Paragraph 3 applies.
- Miss X says the judge could not award her compensation for administrative failures and she therefore believes we can and should consider them.
- However, the courts have already considered this argument and found that even if court proceedings do not provide a complete remedy for all the injustice claimed, this does not bring the complaint back into our jurisdiction. We cannot therefore investigate the matter further.
Final decision
- We cannot investigate this complaint. This is because Miss X has taken court action against TfL in relation to the matter.
Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman