Transport for London crackdown on fare evasion after losing millions

How often do Londoners see fare dodging?

Transcript

00:00transport for london has stepped up its crackdown on fare evasion by deploying a team of investigators

00:09aimed specifically at habitual offenders between april and december in 2024 fare evasion dropped

00:18slightly to three and a half percent down from 0.5 percent the previous year despite this modest

00:25improvement the issues remains costly in 2023 tfl spent nearly 22 million pounds tackling the

00:33problem offenders find 100 pounds reduced to 50 if it was paid within a couple of weeks and more than

00:39500 uniform officers are currently employed to enforce that compliance tfl's director of security

00:47policing and enforcement siwan hayward noted that the vast majority of passengers pay the

00:55correct fare and said it was unfair that a small minority avoid paying burdening those who follow

01:02the rules tfl has reiterated that fare evasion is not a victimless crime with targets to cut the evasion

01:10rate to 1.5 by 2030 the organization is increasing relying on cctv footage to identify patterns of

01:19those responsible for one of the greatest financial losses to the tfl now recent court prosecutions have

01:27seen transport for london recover over 400 000 pounds from 360 prolific evaders currently fare dodging is

01:35estimated to cost the network around 130 million pounds annually the organization is now expanding

01:42focus on newer services like the elizabeth line and london overground but what the londoners think of

01:50fare dodging is it too easy to do here in london and have they ever experienced seeing people do it

01:56i've seen people try and like close follow people through barriers um or like you know just sort of push

02:02through them um i mean yeah it's something i've witnessed um it's i mean if you if you're low on

02:13cash i can understand why you'd be motivated to do it um i think a lot of people sort of feel like

02:19you know why you know like i guess some people might resent it i don't particularly have a strong

02:28animosity towards it but you know it it's you know again it's another price that keeps going up and

02:35the more that happens and you're going to get people trying to find ways out of it

02:40i'm not aware of enforcement workers i'm not aware of a presence certainly not on the tube um maybe

02:50ups you know when you're when you come off when you are near the exit but no not on the platforms

02:57ups not at all actually

02:58ups not at all actually

02:59ups not at all actually

03:00ups not at all actually