Prolific fare-dodgers are to be prioritised by Transport for London in a highly-ambitious new crackdown that aims to more than halve the evasion rate by the end of the decade.
This will see efforts that are currently focused on the Tube being expanded to include the Elizabeth line and the London Overground.
TfL, which loses about £190m a year due to unpaid fares, says it will also make efforts to address what appears to be a growing epidemic of blatant “gate pushing”.
TfL aims to cut the evasion rate from 3.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent by 2030.
The sight of fare dodgers “tail-gating” paying passengers as they pass through a ticket barrier, or forcing their way through the wide-access gates, has become a familiar sight – and often happens blatantly in front of station staff.
TfL’s efforts to clamp down on fare evasion have been hampered by the Metropolitan police’s decision not to support operations targeting bus fare evasion since an incident in Croydon in 2023 sparked huge controversy.
This led to the police officer involved being fined for assaulting a passenger he had wrongly arrested, before his conviction was overturned a year later.
TfL, which is spending £18m on fare evasion initiatives this year, confirmed to The Standard that it is able to call on the support of the British Transport Police on its rail network but it does not carry out joint operations with the Met on the bus network.
TfL uses technology and professional investigators to spot passengers who use contactless bank cards to deliberately dodge fares on multiple occasions.
This can involve failing to touch in, touch out or using a card that is accepted by the card readers but which then results in TfL being refused payment by the card issuer.
In one case highlighted recently by TfL commissioner Andy Lord, an investigation into one persistent evader found fares were dodged on 299 occasions – resulting in TfL recovering more than £1,000 following a court prosecution in January.
Over the last year, more than £400,000 was awarded to TfL by the courts last year following the prosecution of 360 prolific fare evaders.
TfL has between 450 and 500 enforcement officers working across the capital’s public transport network.
TfL’s fare dodging system is known as the “irregular travel analysis platform” (ITAP). It uses ticketing and journey data, passenger information, and CCTV to identify fare evaders responsible for the greatest revenue loss.
Fare dodgers who blatantly push their way through ticket barriers are known to present a high risk of assaulting staff.
In response, TfL is increasing the number of enforcement officers 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 make it harder to force open the wide-aisle gates, which are the main access point for chronic offenders.
However, many London Overground and DLR stations are gateless – meaning fare dodgers have no physical barrier to free travel.
According to TfL, it suffers a lower rate of fare dodging than comparable cities such as New York, where it is 13 per cent.
Mayor Sir 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.”
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement, said: “The overwhelming majority of customers pay the correct fare, and it’s unfair to those who do that a minority avoid paying.
“We are strengthening our capability to deter and detect fare evaders ensuring they face the consequences of their actions and that the cost of fare evasion is paid by the evaders, not our fare paying customers or taxpayers.
“Fare evasion is not a victimless crime. It robs Londoners of vital investment in a safe, frequent and reliable transport network and we are committed to reducing the current rate of fare evasion to 1.5 per cent by 2030.”
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