Transport for London (TfL) has increased the penalty fare for fare evasion from £80 to £100, reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days, to act as a further deterrent to fare evasion. TfL is committed to tackling fare evasion as revenue from fares is vital for investment in safe, clean and reliable public transport. TfL published new data last month which shows that it prosecuted 19,614 people for fare evasion in 2023, an increase of 56 per cent on 2022.
The increase in penalty fares follows the Department for Transport’s decision to increase the penalty fare to £100 across National Rail. This will ensure that there are clear and consistent rules and penalties across the different transport networks in London, and that the penalty fare remains an effective deterrent.
Fare evasion is a criminal offence and is estimated to cost TfL around £130m – £150m a year, money that could be invested back in the transport network. Around 96 per cent of people do pay the correct fare and TfL strives to ensure that wherever possible fare evaders themselves, not fares or taxpayers, pay the cost of fare evasion. Fare evasion and ticket disputes are also a precursor to approximately half of all reported work-related violence and aggression incidents towards frontline transport workers across the network. TfL does not tolerate any violence, aggression or threatening behaviour towards staff or customers and always seeks the strongest possible action against offenders.
TfL has a comprehensive programme in place to deter offenders, including more than 450 officers undertaking ticket inspection and revenue enforcement activity across every mode of transport every day. Transport staff also provide insight and information about fare evaders to TfL enforcement and investigations teams to take action. TfL has also improved its ability to investigate and detect the most prolific offenders causing the greatest revenue loss through its irregular travel analysis platform (ITAP). ITAP is a detection system that detects fare evasion and revenue loss from patterns in ticketing and passenger data, identifying people who avoid paying for all or part of their journey. Information generated by ITAP supports a variety of intervention activities that aim to measure and reduce revenue loss and deter people from evading their fares. These activities include targeted email campaigns warning customers that they must pay the correct fare, operational station deployments and a register of regular offenders that ITAP has identified for irregular travel patterns who may be prioritised for further investigation and subsequent prosecution.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement, said: “Around 96 per cent of people do pay their fares correctly and it is unfair on these people that a minority of people do not. This increase in the penalty fare will ensure that there are clear and consistent rules across the different transport networks in London, and that our penalty fare remains an effective deterrent. Fare evasion is a criminal offence which robs Londoners of vital investment in a safe, frequent and reliable transport network. It also impacts our customers and our staff, and can make public transport feel unsafe. We work to ensure that wherever possible fare evaders themselves, not fare or tax payers, pay the cost of fare evasion.”
New data on fare evasion prosecution shows that TfL investigated 421 people for habitual fare evasion during 2023 who made more than 50,000 fraudulent journeys across the London Underground network, defrauding TfL of more than £300,000 in lost fare revenue. Of these cases, 190 have been prosecuted to date and 189 were found guilty, with the remaining cases pending court action. TfL is expanding its capability to prosecute more habitual offenders. Fare evasion is a criminal offence which can result in a criminal record for offenders. This also acts as a deterrent due to its impact on other areas including employment opportunities.
A recent case investigated by TfL identified a passenger fare evading by using a Contactless Payment Card and failing to validate correctly for their journeys. An investigation into the travel patterns of the passenger identified 193 occasions of fare evasion which totalled unpaid fares of over £1,200. The passenger recently attended court and pleaded guilty to all the offences. TfL also recently identified a passenger fare evading by using a bank card that had insufficient funds to pay the fare. Analysis of the card’s usage showed a regular failure to validate on every journey made in over a year. CCTV footage was obtained to assist in locating and detecting the offender. The passenger attended court and again pleaded guilty to all the offences. He has been ordered to pay TfL £1,795.60.
