How much is a bus lane fine in the UK?

Outside London the standard penalty charge is £70, reduced to £35 if paid within 14 days. In London it is £160, reduced to £80 within 14 days. The charge is issued to the registered keeper, not the driver, and it is a civil penalty — there are no licence points and no criminal record.

Can I be fined for stopping in a yellow box junction?

Yes. It is an offence to enter a box junction unless your exit is clear, except when turning right and you are prevented only by oncoming traffic. Councils outside London gained powers to enforce this by camera in 2022, and box junctions are now among the highest-issuing camera sites in the country.

How long does a council have to send a PCN?

For a camera-detected offence the notice must normally be served within 28 days of the contravention. If it arrives materially later than that without explanation, that is a legitimate ground to challenge it. Keep the envelope — the postmark can matter.

Does a bus lane PCN affect my insurance or licence?

No. Bus lane and box junction penalties are civil contraventions enforced by councils, so they carry no penalty points and are not declarable to your insurer. That is the key difference between these and a police-issued fixed penalty for something like speeding or driving without insurance.

What happens if I ignore a penalty charge notice?

The charge rises to the full amount after 14 days, then a Charge Certificate adds a further 50% after 28 days. After that the council can register the debt at the Traffic Enforcement Centre and instruct enforcement agents. Ignoring a PCN is by some distance the most expensive way to deal with one.

Can I appeal if the signs were unclear?

Yes, and it is one of the more successful grounds. Councils must sign and mark restrictions to a prescribed standard. If signage was missing, obscured by foliage, contradictory or too late to act on, photograph it and include the images with your challenge — adjudicators do overturn penalties on signage.

Bus Lane and Box Junction Fines: The PCNs Councils Issue Most in 2026

Bus lanes and box junctions are the quietest, most profitable corner of road enforcement in Britain. There is no police officer, no roadside stop and no points on your licence — just a camera, an automated plate read, and a letter a few weeks later.

They are also the fines drivers most often pay without checking, and that is a mistake in both directions: some are unarguable and should be paid immediately at half price, while others rest on signage or markings that would not survive a challenge.

Here is how the system works, what it costs, and where the genuine appeal grounds are.

Why these particular fines are so common

Two things changed. Councils outside London were granted powers to enforce "moving traffic offences" by camera — box junctions, banned turns, one-way contraventions — which had previously been police business almost nobody had capacity to police. And bus lane networks expanded in most large towns at the same time.

The result is heavily concentrated. Nationally, a small number of junctions generate an outsized share of all notices: a single well-known box junction or bus gate can issue tens of thousands of penalties a year on its own. If you have been caught, you are very probably one of thousands caught at the same spot.

That concentration is itself useful information. A junction issuing enormous volumes is usually one where the layout or signage is genuinely confusing rather than one where thousands of drivers independently decided to break the law, and that is exactly the sort of site where a well-evidenced challenge can succeed.

What each one costs

Contravention	Standard charge	Paid within 14 days	If ignored
Bus lane (outside London)	£70	£35	£105 after Charge Certificate
Bus lane (London)	£160	£80	£240 after Charge Certificate
Box junction / banned turn	£70 (£160 London)	£35 (£80 London)	+50% after 28 days

Two things to take from that table. The 14-day discount halves the bill, so speed matters more than anything else you decide. And the escalation is not a threat — the Charge Certificate stage is automatic, and after it the debt can be registered at the Traffic Enforcement Centre and passed to enforcement agents.

Unlike a police-issued fixed penalty, none of these carry points, and none are declarable to your insurer. They are civil contraventions against the registered keeper.

The rules people get wrong

Box junctions. You may not enter unless your exit road is clear. The single exception is turning right, where you may wait inside the box if the only thing stopping you is oncoming traffic. The common error is edging in behind a car that then fails to clear the junction — the camera records you stationary inside the box, and the fact that you were boxed in by someone else is not, on its own, a defence.

Bus lanes. Check the operating hours on the sign; many are part-time, and driving in one outside its hours is perfectly legal. You may cross a bus lane to reach a side road or a driveway, but you may not travel along it. Taxis and cycles are frequently permitted where private cars are not, which is why "the car in front did it" proves nothing.

Bus gates. These catch more drivers than bus lanes proper. A bus gate is a short section of road open only to buses, often mid-route and often signed only just before it, with no physical barrier. Satnavs routinely route cars straight through them.

The appeal grounds that actually work

Challenge on facts, not on fairness. Adjudicators have no discretion to cancel a correctly issued penalty because it feels harsh, and challenging usually forfeits the 14-day discount — so it is worth doing properly or not at all.

Grounds that succeed:

The signage or road markings were inadequate. Councils must sign restrictions to a prescribed standard. Faded box markings, foliage over a sign, contradictory signs, or a sign placed too late for a driver to react are all legitimate. Go back and photograph it, with something in frame for scale and context.
The contravention did not occur. The exit was clear when you entered; the bus lane was outside its hours; you were crossing to a driveway rather than travelling along it. Ask for the council's own footage — you are entitled to see it, and it sometimes helps you rather than them.
You were not the keeper. If the car was sold and the V5C transfer was filed before the date, liability moved with it.
You were directed by police or a traffic officer, or moving out of the way of an emergency vehicle.
The notice arrived out of time. Camera-detected notices are normally served within 28 days.

The process runs in two stages: an informal challenge to the council first, then, if refused, a formal appeal to an independent adjudicator — London Tribunals in the capital, the Traffic Penalty Tribunal elsewhere. Both are free, and neither can increase the penalty.

Keeping the next letter off the doormat

A PCN is annoying but survivable. The letters worth genuinely worrying about come from a different system entirely: an ANPR camera flagging your car as untaxed, uninsured or without a valid MOT carries fines up to £1,000, six points, and in the worst case seizure of the vehicle. Those are criminal matters, and unlike a bus lane penalty they follow you.

If a letter has already arrived and you are not sure which sort you are holding, our guide to what an ANPR penalty notice means and what to do next walks through the four issuing bodies and the deadlines attached to each.

Either way, the cheapest five minutes you can spend is confirming your vehicle is actually legal right now — MOT, tax and emissions status in one place, straight from DVLA and DVSA records. Most enforcement letters trace back to a renewal date that quietly passed, not to a decision anyone made.