Not the Ticket
Ticketless and fraudulent travel costs the industry millions in lost revenue – a figure borne by honest fare-paying passengers. Peter Brown spent the afternoon and evening peak with revenue protection teams at busy commuter stations on the West Coast Main
Peter Brown joins revenue protection teams on patrol on the West Coast Main Line as they clamp down on the increasingly costly and often fraudulent act of fare evasion.
Even the hardiest of railway followers – either from within the industry or an enthusiastic outsider – could not have failed to have been shocked by figures released from West Midlands Trains back in April 2019 showing the extent that passengers would go to obtain a free train ride.
The seriousness of the problem was shown in the revelation more than £1million had been recovered from ticket cheats in the year up to the beginning of March 2019. Even with the vigilant and compelling swoops on stations and trains, that figure in reality is likely to have been even higher.
A shocking report from West Midlands Trains, which operates services on West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway, revealed revenue officers received a staggering £1,284,746 of unpaid fares during the financial year that ended in April 2019. Broken down, the figures show £876,483 was recovered from passengers on London Northwestern Railway and £408,463 from users of West Midlands services.
Figures published also included penalty fare notices and tickets sold to passengers at stations attempting to board trains without paying. These two train companies issued a total of 19,579 penalty fares, with only five per cent of them being successfully appealed.
To reach that situation teams spent 2,506 hours at stations and on trains. A total of 1,163 hours were spent on London Northwestern Railway and 705 hours on trains, 458 hours at stations. The total for the West Midlands network was 705 hours on trains and 856 hours at stations.
Repeat offenders were taken to court along with those who failed to pay penalty fare notices. A total of 3,038 court cases were heard, resulting in £462,292.95 being recovered in costs and revenue.
“We know that our fare paying passengers find ticketless travel a real issue, and we are committed to tackling this as best we can,” revealed London Northwestern’s head of on-board Sean McBroom, when the figures were revealed.
“We have been trialling a new route-based approach to help inform our revenue protection activity, so passengers will see our teams at stations and on trains more frequently.
“We always advise passengers to purchase a ticket before travelling, either from station staff, ticket vending machines, online or via the London North Western or West Midlands Railway apps. Anyone found travelling without a ticket will be liable to a penalty fare.”
In the past, in my role as a journalist, I have covered events and matters involving revenue officers in their battle against fare cheats on Britain’s national railway network. However, they have usually been shadowing one officer on-board trains, working in close liaison with British Transport Police.
On one occasion a revenue officer approached a young man boarding a train on a Great Northern service after telling me: “This is one of our regulars.”
The scenario then went with the officer spotting a regular face he had seen before. On this occasion he approached the youngster asking him: “You haven’t got a ticket, have you?” To which the young offender stated quite openly: “No, I haven’t got a ticket and I have no intention of getting one.”
However, the young man did not get too far as just a few stops along the line BTP officers were waiting to take him away for questioning.
“What I have also noticed in recent years is the genuine belief by some within our society they should not have to pay to ride on the railway.”
What I have also noticed in recent years is the genuine belief by some within our society they should not have to pay to ride on the railway.
This was seen quite clearly three years ago in a north-west London pub frequented by students, who were all discussing the plight of one of their number working as a barmaid during the evenings. It became apparent she had been found guilty of fare evasion in the Midlands.
Her fellow students rallied round – not to pay her fine – but to loudly declare that in their opinion she had done the right thing by not paying her fare. One of the students loudly proclaimed, so everyone in the hostelry heard him state: “She did the right thing. Nobody should ever have to pay to ride on a train.”
So, still having that memory ringing in my ears and the fact the West Midlands Trains operation was to be the biggest fight in the fare evasion battle I was to witness, I was intrigued about just what was going to happen.