Transport for London (TfL) is expanding its professional team of dedicated investigators as part of a bold new strategy to crack down on fare evasion. The team will focus on identifying and targeting the most persistent and high-impact offenders, who cost TfL thousands of pounds in lost revenue each year.
Building on recent successes on the London Underground, this team will expand to cover the Elizabeth line and London Overground before covering all other rail modes. It will also complement the work of TfL’s team of more than 500 uniformed officers already deployed across the network to deal with fare evasion and other anti-social behaviour, keeping staff and customers safe.
The investigations team will take an intelligence-led approach, using advanced tools, including TfL’s Irregular Travel Analysis Platform (ITAP) which uses ticketing and journey data, passenger information, and CCTV to identify fare evaders responsible for the greatest revenue loss. By analysing travel patterns, the team will focus on those who evade fares repeatedly, ensuring they are caught and held accountable.
This approach has seen success on London Underground, where more than £400,000 was awarded to TfL by the courts last year following the prosecution of 360 prolific fare evaders. ITAP complements a range of deterrent measures, including targeted email campaigns warning customers of fare evasion penalties, station interventions, and a register of repeat offenders to prioritise enforcement and potential prosecution.
One major area of focus for TfL’s enforcement teams is contactless payment card fare evasion. In one recent case, an individual used a contactless payment card to evade paying the correct fare across 202 journeys. After investigation, the individual was ordered to pay £1,472 in fines, one of the thousands who are caught and prosecuted each year, resulting in financial penalties and criminal convictions.
TfL continues to tackle blatant fare evasion, such as gate-pushing. As well as creating an intimidating atmosphere for staff and customers, this type of evasion increases risk of work-related violence and aggression for customer-facing teams. In response, TfL is increasing the number of accredited enforcement officers on its network who can refuse entry and remove people from stations, and deploying them to locations with high prevalence of people pushing through gates. TfL is also working to improve wide-aisle gates, which are the main access point for chronic offenders.
Other key measures in the fare evasion strategy include:
Enhanced monitoring and quicker response to emerging fare evasion trends across the network
Expanded data collection and analysis to refine intelligence-led enforcement
Tailored interventions for each transport mode
Managing known offenders across the network and working with the police to identify the most prolific offenders on social media
This comprehensive strategy aims to further reduce fare evasion across all TfL services, with the goal of driving down the rate to below 1.5 per cent by 2030.
Although there has been an encouraging drop in fare evasions, to 3.4 per cent (April-December 2024), TfL remains committed to reducing these figures further. The current fare evasion rate is significantly lower than many cities globally, including New York’s 13 per cent [1]. However, the £130m annual cost of fare evasion impacts TfL’s ability to invest in and maintain a safe, clean, and reliable service, so TfL is determined to lower this to 1.5 per cent by 2030.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Fare evasion is a criminal offence which deprives TfL of thousands of pounds of vital revenue every year that could be reinvested in London’s transport network.
“That’s why we’re expanding our team of professional investigators to cover the whole network and investing in the latest technology to target the worst offenders. It sends a clear message: fare evasion will not be tolerated, and we will hold those who do it to account.
“The team is supporting more than 500 uniformed TfL officers across the network who are already going after fare evaders and helping to keep the public safe. The latest data shows that TfL’s efforts to reduce fare evasion on the network is working, but there is more to do. I’m determined to do all I can to support the vital work TfL is doing to ensure these vital funds are reinvested into improving transport services for Londoners.”
