TfL penalty charges: red routes, Congestion Charge and ULEZ

Checked 22 July 2026 · How we check our figures

Jump to: The decision · What next · Numbers · Deadlines · Mistakes

What it is

Transport for London issues penalty charges for three different failures: stopping on a red route, not paying the Congestion Charge, and not paying the ULEZ charge, and recipients tend to file all three simply as a TfL letter. The structural point the notice does not explain is that one issuer runs two legal roads: red route, bus lane and moving traffic penalties appeal to the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators, while Congestion Charge and ULEZ penalties appeal to the Road User Charging Adjudicators, both sitting at London Tribunals, each with its own grounds (London Tribunals, checked 2026-07-22).

Reading the notice

The contravention line decides everything downstream: which scheme, which statutory grounds, and which adjudication road; the rest of the notice, discount, full rate and uplift, follows the common penalty charge pattern.

The road user charging schemes are separate from each other: the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ can both be due for the same day's driving, and each unpaid charge can draw its own penalty (TfL scheme rules).

Red routes are TfL's own network, around 5 per cent of London's roads carrying around 30 per cent of its traffic, which is why stopping rules on them are enforced camera-first (TfL, reported figures).

The decision in front of you

Pay in the 14 day window and the penalty halves; the current levels have moved in recent years and live dated in the ladder calculator at /fines/pcn-escalation.

Make representations to TfL within 28 days on the scheme's grounds: for the charging schemes these run to matters like the charge having been paid, the vehicle being exempt or not in the zone; not knowing about the zone is not among them (London Tribunals; TfL scheme rules).

Appeal a rejection within 28 days to the adjudicators that match the notice, Environment and Traffic for the road network penalties, Road User Charging for the zone charges (London Tribunals).

Do nothing and the uplift and registration road opens, 50 per cent on top at charge certificate stage and the county court machinery after it, the charge certificate guide's territory.

What happens next

For the Congestion Charge and ULEZ, the daily charge itself has a payment window running to midnight on the third day after driving; the penalty exists for the day that window closes unpaid (TfL scheme rules, checked 2026-07-22).

Bus lane and yellow box penalties from TfL run on the machinery of their own guides, the bus lane guide and the yellow box guide, with TfL as issuer and the Environment and Traffic Adjudicators as the appeal road.

From charge certificate onwards the enforcement road is the common one, covered in the charge certificate guide, with the timeline in the checker at /fines/pcn-deadline-checker.

The numbers

The mechanics are stable even where the levels move: 50 per cent off in the 14 day window, 50 per cent on top once a charge certificate is served (TfL scheme rules, checked 2026-07-22).

The levels themselves have been raised more than once in recent years and are deliberately not quoted here: see the ladder calculator at /fines/pcn-escalation, figures dated there.

Two zone charges can stack on one day's driving, and each carries its own penalty when unpaid (TfL scheme rules).

The deadlines

The zone charges are payable by midnight on the third day after driving in the zone; after that the penalty road opens (TfL scheme rules, checked 2026-07-22).

The discount runs 14 days from service of the penalty notice, representations 28 days, the appeal 28 days from a rejection (London Tribunals).

The full sequence, notice by notice, runs dated in the checker at /fines/pcn-deadline-checker.

What people get wrong

Paying to be safe and then wanting to argue: payment closes the penalty, and the representations and appeal roads close with it (London Tribunals).

Treating the Congestion Charge and the ULEZ as one bill: they are separate schemes, separately payable, and one compliant box on the notice does not cover the other (TfL scheme rules).

Sending the appeal down the wrong road: a zone charge penalty argued to the traffic adjudicators, or a red route penalty to the charging adjudicators, costs the clock even where the argument is good (London Tribunals).

Authority

Transport for London Road Network legislation and TfL scheme orders; London Tribunals, Environment and Traffic Adjudicators and Road User Charging Adjudicators; Traffic Management Act 2004