Fare dodging is rife on Britain’s railways. “The last time this was looked at by the industry, there was around about £300m per annum going out of the industry because of fare-dodging,” Stephanie Tobyn of the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) told The Independent’s daily travel podcast. That works out at £600 per minute.
But people who mistakenly travel without a valid ticket are being treated too harshly, according to the rail watchdog.
Transport Focus is urging train operators to implement a “yellow card” system for passengers caught without a ticket, giving them the benefit of the doubt on a first offence.
Meanwhile Ms Tobyn of the ORR is calling for evidence from passengers who have been given a Penalty Fare or actually prosecuted for travelling without a ticket. “We want to look at people who accidentally find themselves in this position and then end up with a criminal record,” she says.
The moves follow cases of users being prosecuted and fined heavily after inadvertently breaching railcard rules.
These are the key questions and answers.
Define a train ticket?
The standard paper ticket, as issued by booking offices and ticket machines, is still common. But a 21st-century ticket can take many more forms than in the Victorian era, including:
What does the law say about rail tickets?
The basic principle is set down in the Regulation of Railways Act 1889. On request by a staff member, the rail passenger is required to produce “a ticket showing that his fare is paid”.
The rather more modern National Rail Conditions of Travel from April 2024 specify:
The first term implies that if you have not been able to buy a ticket –for example because there is neither a booking office nor a working ticket machine – you are deemed innocent and can pay the appropriate fare on board.
The second term emphasises that you must respect, for example, the time restrictions on your tickets, the conditions of any railcard discount and the class of travel.
Doesn’t everyone simply buy a ticket?
About 29 out of 30 passengers do so, according to data from TransPennine Express. But if you plan to buy a ticket at the station and can’t do so, you may board a train if the ticket office is closed (or there isn’t one) and the ticket machine is either broken or won’t accept your preferred method of payment (card or cash).
You should buy a ticket from the guard on board if there is one, or at an interchange station if time allows. If you can’t do either, you can pay at your destination.
Some stations still have “Permit to Travel” machines. You can pay a small sum in return for a receipt that shows the issuing station and the amount paid, which will be deducted from the ticket you eventually buy.
Or, of course, you could book a ticket on your smartphone. TransPennine Express says three-quarters of its passengers do that.
What if the queue is just too long?
You are expected to wait as long as it takes. As one insider posted on a rail forum: “Even if it was the second coming of Christ, as long as the ticket office is open a passenger must buy a ticket or be given authority to travel by an officer of the railway without one.”
If you have allowed reasonable time to buy a ticket but can wait no longer, you could ask station staff – or, in an “open station” the train guard (if there is one) – if you can buy a ticket on board.
They may authorise you to do so if, for example, ticket machines are not working. Otherwise, if you decide to board a train without a ticket you will be breaking the law.
What happens next?
With fare dodging costing the industry – and therefore the taxpayer – an estimated £600 per minute, train operators take the crime seriously. On many services, train managers, conductors and guards check tickets. If they encounter someone without a valid ticket, they will typically sell a new ticket at the correct fare.
On a journey from London to Manchester, for example, someone with a £45 advance ticket who misses their train and hops on the next one could be invited to pay four times as much as the full single fare.
There is also a dedicated force of revenue protection officers whose role is to catch passengers who fail to pay. These staff work on trains and at stations. Train operator Southeastern tells prospective applicants: “As a revenue protection officer, it’s your job to travel on our trains, inspecting passengers’ tickets and collecting fares from those who haven’t paid. You’ll interview suspected fare evaders, fill out forms and process paperwork.”
“At the start of each shift, you’ll be assigned a partner and a route. You never work alone in this role, always in pairs. Or, sometimes, larger groups.”
What about travelling with ‘the wrong kind of ticket’?
Revenue protection staff will also take interest in passengers who do the following:
All of these render the ticket not valid for travel, and so the traveller is regarded as ticketless.
What are the penalties?
Rail staff can choose between selling the correct ticket, issuing a Penalty Fare (£50, doubled if not paid within three weeks, plus the full single fare) or prosecuting the passenger. This is the rail firm’s choice, not the passenger’s.
All passengers will come up with an excuse when challenged about why they do not have a ticket. From experience, rail staff can usually tell if a tale about running late and foolishly hopping on a train just before it left is true. If so, they may simply apply the full single fare.
The Penalty Fare is the standard response to an offence. But if the revenue protection officer believes that the individual is a repeat offender – perhaps a passenger who simply “pays when challenged” – they may report the traveller for prosecution.
What happens if a case goes to court?
If convicted, the passenger can be fined up to £1,000 or jailed. They will also receive a criminal record, which can affect their job prospects – and rules them out of obtaining an Esta to visit the US.
Can I appeal a Penalty Fare?
Yes, but if you were travelling without a ticket it is unlikely to succeed. For example, the many people who fondly imagine that they can pay with a contactless card or smartphone to travel between London and Stansted airport are routinely issued Penalty Fares.
They “tap in” with a contactless card for the Stansted Express at London Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale, only to discover on reaching the airport that their card is not valid.
Warning signs have now been posted, meaning that anyone who is issued with a Penalty Fare is unlikely to succeed in an appeal.
What does Transport Focus want to see?
Prevention, in the form of more barriers at stations. The rail watchdog says: “The industry should demonstrate to passengers that the industry cares about collecting its revenue and ensure that people know they will be asked to produce a valid ticket at the start, end, and during their journey.
“There are clear benefits to having safe, secure stations with proper barriers, however there are obviously further cost challenges associated with the introduction of these measures.”
Punishment, though, should be measured – with passengers invited to pay the correct fare on a first offence, rather than facing a penalty or prosecution. For this to happen, though, the passenger will need to provide proper ID (with a condition of being let off being that they know exactly who you are), with the incident stored on a central database recording infractions for the whole country.
Transport Focus also wants a digital database of railcards, to enable rail staff to check a passenger’s eligibility for a discount if they say their railcard has been forgotten or cannot be loaded on a phone.
Can you be an innocent fare-dodger?
Yes – often rail passengers are guilty only of a misunderstanding. Thousands of people have inadvertently made journeys they assumed could be paid for by contactless card – only to discover they could tap in but had strayed across an invisible “tariff border” and could not tap out.
Others get impatient after queuing for ages for a ticket and jump on a train without one, intending to pay on board or at the other end.
At the other extreme, some commuters deliberately set out day after day to travel without paying, robbing the railway of revenue and increasing the financial burden on the majority of law-abiding passengers.
The review by the Office of Rail and Road will assess travellers’ tales.
