Fare evasion costs tube £3 million

Fare evasion on the Tube has cost London Underground nearly £3 million (€3.35 million) in lost revenue in the last 12 months, according to figures out yesterday.

Just under three per cent of Tube users admitted to deliberately evading paying for an Underground ticket in the last year, a survey commissioned by security solutions company G4S showed.

The company said one method of fare dodging involved cheats pretending to put their travel card over the automatic gate reader.

The honest customer behind then puts their paid-up card over the reader and the offender is able to pass through without paying. The survey of 2,004 adults showed that six per cent had admitted to failing to pay for tickets for Underground trains and for buses in the last five years.

Also, nine per cent of adults using mainline trains admitted to fare dodging at least once in the last five years, with the cheating rate as high as 18 per cent among 18-34 year olds.

G4S rail and maritime managing director Steven Taylor said: "While criminal gangs use sophisticated techniques to clone tickets and try to circumvent card readers, thousands of Britons persist in sneaking through barriers to avoid paying.

"These travellers are taking advantage of legitimate fare paying passengers and depriving network operators of revenue that is vital to improve the travel network."

A spokesman for British Transport Police (BTP) said: "Of up to 3.5 million passengers who use the Tube every day, the vast majority are law-abiding and do pay the correct fare.

"BTP works closely with London Underground (LU) revenue staff to conduct more than 150 joint operations each year. Fare evasion is a crime and anyone caught evading their fare can be reported for prosecution.

"Those intent on not paying their fare will always look for new ways to avoid paying and BTP works with LU staff to both detect and deter this activity regularly".