At a glance
• Fare evasion is rising across TfL services, with around 1 in 20 Tube journeys unpaid — roughly 400,000 dodged trips per weekday, costing about £200m a year
• Tube services have the highest evasion rate (up to 5.3%), and critics say social-media-fuelled fare dodging is becoming “normalised”
• Critics have called for more ticket barriers (especially on the DLR) and the establishment of a fare-evasion taskforce
The level of fare dodging in London has increased – with more than one in 20 Tube passengers failing to pay for their journeys.
About 400,000 journeys on a typical weekday are evaded across the Transport for London (TfL) network - costing the body an estimated £200m a year in income.
New figures published by TfL reveal that the evasion rate has risen year on year since the start of April.
The figures come as TfL was urged by the Tory transport spokesman on the London Assembly to adopt measures taken by other world cities to reduce levels of fare evasion.
Between April and June, fare dodging rose from 3.4 per cent to 3.7 per cent across all TfL services.
Between July and September, it fell to 3.6 per cent – but was still higher than the 3.3 per cent recorded for the comparative three-month period in 2024.
Excluding the Croydon tram network, fare dodgers are most common on the London Underground. Year on year, the evasion rate has risen from 5.1 per cent to 5.3 per cent.
With about 3.8m Tube journeys made on a typical weekday, this means that about 200,000 are dodged.
In addition, about 28,000 journeys out of 800,000 a day are evaded on the Elizabeth line, and more than 130,000 on the bus network, which carries about 5.1m passengers on weekdays.
TfL says the “vast majority” of passengers – more than 96 per cent – pay the correct fare.
But it admits fare evasion denies it “vital revenue” that would be invested in better services. Its aim is to reduce evasion rates to less than 1.5 per cent by 2030 – though critics doubt whether this can be achieved.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement, told TfL’s safety and security panel this week: “Our fare evasion rate for quarter 2 is 3.6 per cent. That is down 0.1 percentage points on quarter one, 3.7 per cent.
“We are seeing continued improvements in terms of the rate of fare evasion across London Underground, the Elizabeth line, the DLR and the Overground.
“We have made tackling fare evasion, and all the associated harms with fare evasion, a key specification [in our contracts].
“We have very robust performance management plans in place to ensure our operators are playing their full part in tackling fare evasion.”
A report published on Friday by Thomas Turrell, the City Hall Conservatives transport spokesman called for action to tackle “the scourge of fare evasion”.
He warned that fare evasion had become “normalised” – not helped by social media platforms such as Tik Tok “exploding with content” showing how to push through ticket barriers and glorifying prolific fare dodgers.
In the report, he highlighted the efforts made by some chronic offenders to avoid paying.
This includes the use of “dummy” Contactless bank cards – fake or cloned cards that can fool ticket barriers into opening – and of fraudulent or expired rail cards.
In addition, he said that some evaders deliberately took short journeys where inspections were less likely, and used stations with fewer staff.
He accused the mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, of paying “lip service” to the problem of fare evasion, while pushing up fares each year for commuters.
Mr Turrell recommended that ticket barriers be introduced across the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) network – which is currently a largely “open” system without staff in attendance on platforms.
He wants larger barriers to be installed at Tube stations that are harder to hurdle, force open or crawl underneath – which some evaders do with the wide access gates.
He wants TfL to create a fare evasion taskforce and suggested offering “appropriate training and support” to station staff to enable them to confront passengers who try to avoid paying.
Fare evasion is the trigger for more than half of all violence and aggression experienced by TfL staff and contractors, and station staff, who often work alone, are currently not expected to challenge fare evaders.
Mr Turrell said: “Every Londoner has watched someone push through the barriers or jump over them to avoid paying the fare, knowing full well that they will be picking up the cost of the offender’s non-payment in the form of eye-watching fare rises.
“It’s just not good enough, and Sadiq Khan continues to pay lip service to the problem in spite of the concern Londoners have when using the Tube. It’s not good enough, and Londoners are fed up with watching this happen unchallenged.”
