Places and nations
TfL red route PCN: amount, dates and appeals
Independent site, not a council, operator or appeals service. You pay or appeal only through the channel printed on your notice.
Enter the date on your TfL notice and how it arrived: the countdown lists the reduced-rate deadline, the challenge dates and the charge certificate.
Next: Last day for the reduced rate
8 November 2026
13 days left · £80
| Last day for the reduced rate14 days beginning with the day the notice was served. Pay £80 instead of £160. | 8 November 2026£80 |
| Informal challenge, to keep the reduced rateWrite to the council before this date: if it rejects the challenge it may offer the reduced rate again. | 8 November 2026 |
| Notice to Owner can be posted (earliest)Sent to the registered keeper if nothing is paid in 28 days. From then on the full £160 is due. | 23 November 2026£160 |
| Formal representations (earliest)28 days beginning with the day the Notice to Owner is served. The date counts from your Notice to Owner: this is the earliest it can fall. | 22 December 2026 |
| Charge certificate (earliest)If nothing is paid or challenged, the charge rises by 50% to £240. | 23 December 2026£240 |
| Order for recovery (earliest)14 days after the charge certificate the council can register the debt at the county court; you then have 21 days for a witness statement. | 6 January 2027£240 |
The Notice to Owner must be served within 6 months of the notice (SI 2022/71 reg 20).
Red routes are the main roads in London managed by Transport for London rather than by the boroughs, marked with red lines instead of yellow ones. Stopping restrictions on them are strict, because they carry buses and heavy traffic, and Transport for London enforces them with civil enforcement officers and cameras. A red route Penalty Charge Notice costs £160. TfL halves it to £80 if you pay within 14 days, or within 21 days when the notice was sent by post after a camera recording, and the notice states which period applies. If nothing is paid or challenged, a charge certificate raises it to £240. The challenge route is the same as for a borough penalty: representations to TfL, then an appeal to London Tribunals, which are independent of TfL. A red route PCN is a civil penalty under the Traffic Management Act 2004, not a criminal fine, and carries no penalty points.
London PCN by band
Penalty
£160
| Within 14 days | £80 |
| After a charge certificate | £240 |
| In force since | 7 April 2025 |
Rules, amounts and dates read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
What a red route PCN costs at each stage
| Stage | Amount |
|---|---|
| Paid within 14 days (or 21 for a posted camera notice) | £80 |
| Paid after that, before a charge certificate | £160 |
| After a charge certificate | £240 |
For comparison, a borough in band A charges £160 for a higher-rate contravention and a band B borough £140 (London levels). The mini-tool above shows the borough amounts.
Dates for a red route notice
An officer fixes a notice to a car on a red route on 20 November 2026. The reduced rate of £80 runs until 3 December 2026. If nothing is paid, a Notice to Owner can be posted from 18 December 2026, opening 28 days for formal representations. A camera notice posted on 27 November 2026 would be served on 30 November 2026, after the weekend, and its reduced rate would run until 20 December 2026 (SI 2022/71, regulations 3 and 10). The countdown at the top gives all of these for your own date and saves them to your calendar.
Challenging TfL
For a notice fixed to the car, TfL accepts an informal challenge before the Notice to Owner; for a camera notice, you make representations straight away. Formal representations follow the statutory grounds: the contravention did not occur, you were not the owner, the vehicle was taken without consent, the penalty exceeded the applicable amount, procedural impropriety and the others listed in SI 2022/576. If TfL rejects them, you have 28 days to appeal to London Tribunals. The appeal letter builder drafts the first letter.
Evidence that matters on red routes
- The signs and markings at the exact place, including any time plates for single red lines or bays.
- For a camera notice, the full images or clip: how long the vehicle stopped, and what it was doing.
- Proof of an exemption, such as a Blue Badge used where the rules allow it.
- Anything that forced you to stop: a breakdown, an accident ahead, an instruction from the police.
Mitigation alone rarely wins at the tribunal, but TfL can cancel on discretion at the challenge stage; see our tribunal page on what adjudicators can and cannot do.
Red routes and the boroughs side by side
A street can change hands at a junction: a red route belongs to TfL, the side road beyond it to the borough. Two notices issued a few metres apart can therefore come from two different authorities, with two different amounts and two different addresses for challenges. Check the name at the top of your notice before you pay or write, and send everything to the authority that issued it. London Tribunals hears appeals against both.
If it reaches the charge certificate
At £240, the debt can then be registered at court after 14 days. Our charge certificate page explains the witness statement that can reopen the case if you never received the earlier letters. Acting earlier is always cheaper: the reduced rate is a third of the final amount.