Fare-dodging: Simon Calder reveals the inside story on the rules on rail tickets and how they are enforced
Chief magistrate insists 74,000 fines for alleged fare-dodging on the railway should be quashed – but efforts continue to catch passengers without valid tickets
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Your support makes all the difference.The chief magistrate has insisted 74,000 fines for alleged fare-dodging on the railway should be quashed. The decision has focused attention on the extent of fare-dodging.
Often rail passengers are guilty only of a misunderstanding. Thousands of people have inadvertently made journeys they assumed could be paid for by contactless card – only to discover they could tap in but had strayed across an invisible “tariff border” and could not a tap out. Others get impatient after queuing for ages for a ticket and jump on a train without one, intending to pay on board or at the other end.
At the other extreme, some commuters deliberately set out day after day to travel without paying, robbing the railway of revenue and increasing the financial burden on the majority of law-abiding passengers.
The cost to the rail industry of people travelling without a ticket is an estimated £330 million per year – about 3.2 per cent of rail revenue. This figure correlates to the estimate from one train firm, TransPennine Express, that 3.5 per cent of passengers travel without a ticket.
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), representing train operators, said: “Fare-dodging is unfair because it means less money to invest in improving services and increases the burden on fare-paying passengers and taxpayers.”
In 2023, the standard Penalty Fare increased from £20 to £50 (or £100 if the errant passenger has not paid within 21 days).
These are the key questions and answers.
What does the law say?
The Regulation of Railways Act 1889 requires the rail passenger to produce “a ticket showing that his fare is paid” on request by a staff member.
The rather more modern National Rail Conditions of Travel from April 2024 specify “you must purchase, where possible, a valid ticket before you board a train” and use it “in accordance with the specific terms and conditions associated with it” – for example, if it is a ticket with time restrictions or has been bought with a railcard discount.
A 21st-century ticket takes rather more forms than in the Victorian era, and can include:
- One on “a mobile telephone or tablet device”
- A smartcard as used in Greater London (with the Oyster card) and elsewhere
- A bank card on which you have tapped in at station entry gates or on a reader on the platform
Why wouldn’t everyone simply buy a ticket?
About 29 out of 30 passengers do so, according to data from TransPennine Express. But if you plan to buy a ticket at the station and can’t do so, you may board a train if the ticket office is closed (or there isn’t one) and the ticket machine is either broken or won’t accept your preferred method of payment (card or cash).
You should buy a ticket from the guard on board if there is one, or at an interchange station if time allows. If you can’t do either, you can pay at your destination.
Some stations still have “Permit to Travel” machines. You can pay a small sum in return for a receipt that shows the issuing station and the amount paid, which will be deducted from the ticket you eventually buy.
Or, of course, you could book a ticket on your smartphone – as, on TransPennine Express at least, three-quarters of passengers do.
What if the queue is just too long?
You are expected to wait as long as it takes. As one insider posted on a rail forum: “Even if it was the second coming of Christ, as long as the ticket office is open a passenger must buy a ticket or be given authority to travel by an officer of the railway without one.”
If you have allowed reasonable time to buy a ticket but can wait no longer, you could ask station staff – or, in an “open station” the train guard (if there is one) – if you can buy a ticket on board.
Such authorisation may be granted if, for example, ticket machines are not working. Otherwise, if you decide to board a train without a ticket you will be breaking the law.
Train operators take fare-dodging very seriously and employ revenue protection officers to catch passengers who fail to pay. These staff work on trains and at stations.
What about travelling with “the wrong sort of ticket”?
Revenue protection staff will also take interest in passengers who do the following:
- Use an Advance ticket on the wrong train, unless they have been told specifically that they can do so because of disruption
- Claim a railcard discount when they don’t have one (though if they have simply left it at home, they can claim back any penalty applied)
- Sit in first class with a standard ticket (unless the train has been declared as “declassified”)
- Try to use an operator-specific ticket on a service run by a different firm – eg a cheap London Northwestern ticket from Birmingham to London on Avanti West Coast
- Attempt a “split-ticket” trip without following the rules – for example, buying separate Bristol-Didcot and Didcot-London tickets to cover a Bristol-London trip, but boarding a train that does not stop at Didcot
What is the penalty for travelling without a ticket – or the wrong sort of ticket?
Railway staff can choose from one of three options, which are progressively more serious and expensive.
- To charge you the full single fare
- To charge you a Penalty Fare, which is £50 (or £100 if you fail to pay within three weeks) plus the full single fare
- To report you for prosecution
How do they decide which penalty to apply?
All passengers will come up with an excuse when challenged about why they do not have a ticket. From experience, rail staff can usually tell if a tale about running late and foolishly hopping on a train just before it left is true. If so, they may simply apply the full single fare.
The Penalty Fare is the standard response to an offence. But if the revenue protection officer believes that the individual is a repeat offender – perhaps a passenger who simply “pays when challenged” – they may report the traveller for prosecution.
Can I appeal a Penalty Fare?
Yes, but if you were travelling without a ticket it is unlikely to succeed. For example, the many people who fondly imagine that they can pay with a contactless card or smartphone to travel between London and Stansted airport are routinely issued Penalty Fares.
They “tap in” with a contactless card for the Stansted Express at London Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale, only to discover on reaching the airport that their card is not valid.
Warning signs have now been posted, meaning that anyone who is issued with a Penalty Fare is unlikely to succeed in an appeal.
What happens if a case goes to court?
If convicted, the passenger can be fined up to £1,000 or jailed. This will no longer be under the Single Justice Procedure, with a single magistrate working behind closed doors. Instead, there will be a proper court hearing.
What’s the story with those 74,000 quashed convictions?
Six rail firms – Northern, Transpennine, Avanti West Coast, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway and Merseyrail – used the procedure.
All the convictions will be quashed after the chief magistrate for England and Wales, Judge Paul Goldspring, declared them all to be invalid. The people involved will see their convictions overturned and be handed their money back.
The government says: “If you think you may be affected, you should wait to be contacted directly and told what will happen next including if you have paid some or all of a financial penalty.
“For those who haven’t yet paid anything relating to their offence we will be writing to them is the conviction is declared invalid to confirm the court record has been corrected.”
The cases will be regarded as nullified – as though they have never taken place.
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
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