Almost one in 20 Tubepassengers are dodging fares – at a cost of £130m a year – amid a surge in violence against the staff who try to stop them.
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.
It comes 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.
Frontline staff have told The Independent they have also faced racial abuse and say they fear fare evaders they confront could be armed.
British Transport Police figures show there were more than 480 instances nationally where someone was carrying a bladed article, such as a knife, over the past year, and Dr Leroy Logan, former superintendent in the Met Police, warned knife crime is a “massive issue”.
“We know that staff are reluctant to challenge anything unless they’re really in large numbers,” he told The Independent.
“Staff don’t do it because they fear being assaulted. You need visibility, you need high visibility patrols on the Tube and bus networks just to reassure people and support the staff.”
However, it’s not just knife crime, with officers also arresting people who have evaded fares for possession of drugs and theft.
In Finsbury Park in February, officers stopped a man who had pushed through the ticket barrier without paying. He became aggressive and violent, striking one officer in the face when they detained him – he was arrested for fare evasion and assault of an emergency worker. But when police searched him, they also found a stolen phone.
In April, a man was stopped for following someone through the gate at London Bridge. He was searched, and officers found class-B drugs and an electronic item used to remove security tags from goods. He was arrested for going equipped to steal and possession of class-B drugs.
Ms Hayward stressed fare dodging is far from being a “victimless crime” as TfL loses about £130m in revenue – money it could use to make the service “reliable, safer and cleaner”.
Across the Tube, Overground, buses, DLR, and Elizabeth line, 3.4 per cent of people using the service did not pay the fare over the last financial year – a small drop from 3.8 per cent in 2023/24. While 4.7 per cent skip paying the fare on the Tube, according to TfL data from 2024/25.
The common crime is pushing prices up – in March, Tube fares for an adult daily ticket increased by 4.6 per cent.
“People are choosing to commit that crime and we seek to provide a really affordable transport network for London,” Ms Hayward said.
“Bus fares have been frozen, and we try to minimise the increase in rail fares, but people who choose to evade fares are undermining the efforts made to make travel in London affordable and accessible,” she added.
However, as the cost of living continues to rise, fare evasion is likely to become even more widespread.
Manny Hothi, chief executive of Trust for London, said: “There’s no excuse for fare dodging, but the rise in it points to a wider problem. Many Londoners are facing an impossible squeeze on already tight budgets.
“Over half a million are in low-paid work, and the cost of everything from housing to childcare is much higher in London — transport costs just add to the pressure. When fares go up, Londoners who rely on public transport to get to work are forced to cut back elsewhere just to make ends meet.”
The mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, said: “Fare evasion is a criminal offence which deprives TfL of thousands of pounds of vital revenue every year that could be reinvested in London’s transport network.
“That’s why we’re expanding our team of professional investigators to cover the whole network and investing in the latest technology to target the worst offenders. It sends a clear message: fare evasion will not be tolerated, and we will hold those who do it to account.”
