Rail commuter's champ: My road hell

Jon Yuill, the rail commuter's champ voted for by the users of BBC News Online, makes a rare foray on to the roads. It's not plain sailing.

I stand before you an innocent man.

My brush with the law started when one day last December, the trains were even worse than usual. They weren't just late or delayed so much as missing altogether. I had to get to work that day, so decided to drive instead.

WHO IS JON YUILL? Elected: Jon Yuill was voted BBC News Online's rail commuters' champion by users of the site Voice: His role is to speak up for the commuter Commute: Married with three children, Jon commutes by train between Witham (Essex) and London

I took a friend, Big Al. It occurred to me that we would need to pay the congestion charge, so I handed Al my mobile and credit card. After trying to buy an Arsenal ticket on my account, he eventually completed the congestion charge transaction, getting the agent's name and a reference number.

Such is my lack of confidence in the System, I cynically remarked that I would probably get a fine in a few days. A few days later, it duly arrived. I wasn't worried at first. After all, I had the agent's name and a reference number. So I rang to say they'd made a mistake. Except of course, I couldn't, because I got the automated menu system that's done so much to improve life in our country.

So I wrote instead, setting out what had happened. Before long, I got another fine for not paying the first one. Now it was beginning to get irritating. So this time, I rang pretending to buy a ticket. When I was eventually put through, I explained that actually, I was trying to clear up their mistake.

On the road again

"Sorry," said the woman. "I can only sell tickets." I pleaded with her. "Please," I said, "they are fining me, and I've done nothing wrong!" ...press one for a stress coronary, two for... So I wrote. Again.

I sent my mobile bill, highlighting the call to the congestion charge line in yellow marker. I set it all out, again, point by point. The agent's name. The transaction number. The mobile phone bill. Then I sat back and waited for the apology. It came a week later, cunningly disguised as a court order.

I was to appear at a London hearing, presided over by a solicitor. It had gone beyond irritating to downright ludicrous. Along with the invitation to attend was a whole sheaf of photographs of me and Big Al in my car. (Why is it that shots of escaping murderers or muggers are always grainy and unusable, yet these cameras showed my double chin with the sort of clarity normally associated with microscopic slides of insects?)

But the best part was where the girl in charge of my case decided that my mobile phone bill didn't mean I had rung to buy a ticket at all. No, she figured, I could have rung them for any number of reasons. There. I'd been rumbled.

I mean, it stands to reason that I'd ring Transport for London at rush hour on a Friday to pass the time of day, or exchange recipes perhaps. It defied belief, but there it was, in black and white... press three for a burst blood vessel...

So Big Al and I had our day in court. In fact, it was an interview room, and we had to leave the door open so the security man could see we weren't violent.

Whichever way you looked at it, this was a complete waste of everybody's time and money. The charming solicitor thought so too, and upheld my appeal in just three minutes.

Finally, it was all over. We emerged from the hearing with all the defiance and stoicism of the Birmingham Six. Except there was only two of us.

Goodness knows what it all cost you and me, the taxpayer. And to think, it all started because of the trains.

*A spokesman for Transport for London said the case was an illustration that the appeals process worked. Out of 27,600 congestion charge appeals heard by the independent Parking and Traffic Appeals Service in December, he said 57% were found in favour of TfL.