South Western Railway recovers £3.4m from fare dodgers

The train operator revealed the amount was recouped through its revenue protection policies.

The announcement comes as the revenue protection team is set to feature in the new Channel 5 documentary series, 'Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law,' which premieres on May 19 at 9pm.

The documentary will showcase the team's dedication and hard work in reducing fare evasion, ensuring fairness for paying customers.

The launch of the series coincides with new research from South Western Railway, one of the UK's busiest train operators.

The research shows that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of Brits believe fare dodgers are exploiting the system, which is unfair to paying customers.

Of the 153.2 million journeys made on South Western Railway's network each year, around seven million are made without a valid ticket.

These unpaid fares cost the operator nearly £40 million annually.

This is money that could have been reinvested to improve services and provide better value for money.

According to the Rail Delivery Group, the figure for the entire rail industry rises to more than £240 million a year.

A YouGov poll of 2,000 UK adults, conducted on behalf of South Western Railway, revealed that 68 per cent disapprove of deliberate fare evasion and believe it is a serious problem that should be penalised.

This sentiment was echoed by 67 per cent of respondents who feel railway companies should do more to catch those who intentionally avoid paying the correct fare.

The most common reasons given for paying the fare included avoiding the risk of a criminal record (41 per cent) or fine (47 per cent), ensuring the railway has money to invest in its services (37 per cent), and protecting taxpayer money (24 per cent).

South Western Railway's revenue protection policy has identified persistent evaders and recovered more than £1 million from fraud cases over the last year.

This includes an individual who owed more than £49,000 for five years of fare dodging.

The documentary will show how a fraud investigation found one customer owed more than £19,000.

Peter Williams, customer and commercial director at South Western Railway, said: "Most customers on our network pay the correct fare and we understand genuine mistakes happen.

"But, there’s growing evidence of some systematically abusing the system - a criminal offence that deprives the railway of hundreds of millions of pounds each year.

"We have a responsibility to protect revenue from tickets so that money can be reinvested into delivering the best possible service.

"We’re proud of the work our revenue protection team does and the role they play in reducing fare dodging.

"By opening up our operations, we’re showing how effective our data-led approach and hard-working team are at identifying and deterring fare evaders, keeping travel fair for fare paying customers.

"Our specially trained teams work around the clock to check tickets on stations and trains.

"They face many challenges, but their efforts have helped cut ticketless travel by more than 40 per cent since 2017 and recover millions of pounds of taxpayer money."

The first episode of 'Fare Dodgers' will air on May 19 at 9pm on Channel 5.

Episodes will be available on demand on the My5 app.