A train fare dodger must pay £12,000 after skipping payments 736 times. Rail operators tackle fare evasion.
Chiltern Railways didn’t name the person, but they committed 736 offenses. These included fraud and railcard abuse, as they did not pay the correct fare.
Chiltern investigated over 8,000 potential fraud cases last year. They recovered over £1 million in lost money and issued 2,156 penalty fares, which amounted to over £114,000.
The Rail Delivery Group estimates large losses for train operators, approximately £240 million yearly. This loss stems from fare evasion in Britain.
Offenses include not paying for the entire trip, adults improperly buying child tickets, and the misuse of railcards. Three repeat offenders paid back up to £15,000 each.
Tony Baxter works at Chiltern, and stated that most customers pay correctly. He also noted that fare evasion leads to significant money lost each year. He wants fairness for paying customers and emphasizes that buying tickets is simple nowadays. Therefore, anyone boarding without the correct ticket risks fines and even prosecution.
Ticket fraud has been in the news lately. The misuse of railcards is a big issue, particularly after hundreds of prosecutions were overturned very quickly when a magistrate wiped out the prosecutions, explaining that the cases shouldn’t have gone to court, noting that operators used a measure they can’t use anymore.
A 22-year-old faced a record for buying the wrong ticket, having only saved £1.85 with his railcard. Ticketing is complex, explained operator Northern, noting that another student saved £1.90, leading Northern to drop his case and similar ones. A student was fined £129.50 for sitting in the wrong carriage.
The first class carriage had sections, and one section was declassified, but the other hadn’t. As a potential solution for first-time offenders without a ticket, a rail watchdog suggested a “yellow card” concept.