Fare dodging on the Tube is costing TfL £130m per year

Almost one in 20 Tube passengers are dodging fares – at a cost of £130m a year – amid a surge in violence against the staff who try to stop them.

- REBECCA WHITTAKER

Almost 5 per cent of fares now go unpaid, new Transport for London (TFL) figures show, pushing up prices when many Londoners are already feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis.

The figures come as shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick took to the London Underground himself to catch fare dodgers on camera. He said: “It’s annoying watching so many people break the law and get away with it.”

A video posted on X (Twitter) showed him questioning passengers who barged past barriers without paying for a ticket. He was met with verbal abuse and one warning from a man who claimed he was carrying a knife.

Many of those stopped for fare evasion are already wanted for other crimes, with knives and drugs seized when suspects are stopped and searched. Now, as part of a new clampdown, TfL has drafted in 500 enforcement officers to try to reduce the number of Tube travellers who are not paying, but many are subjected to violent and racial abuse.

Almost 10,500 reports of work-related violence and aggression were made by TfL staff in 2023-24 – a 5 per cent increase on the previous year. About half of these incidents were linked to fare dodgers.

“People are being sworn at, spat at, pushed and for over 50 per cent of cases where workplace violence is experienced by our frontline teams, fare evading is a trigger,” Siwan Hayward, director of security, policing and enforcement for TfL, told The Independent.