Fines for people who jump the gates on the Tube network should be raised to up to £2,500 to tackle widespread fare evasion, ministers have been told.
Former transport minister Lord Davies of Gower also suggested that repeat fare dodgers on the Underground and wider rail network should face up to six months in prison.
The Tory peer called for the tougher action to reduce gate jumping and other fare evasion in London and other parts of the country during a debate on the Crime and Policing Bill.
Transport for London’s standard penalty notice for not having a ticket on the Underground is £100, reduced to £50 if paid within 21 days.
But shadow Home Office minister Lord Davies tabled an amendment to the crime legislation to increase the fines for fare dodging.
He told the Upper Chamber that TfL previously estimated its losses at around £130 million a year due to fare evasion, a figure which has risen to £190 million, with losses across the whole railway network potentially reaching £330 million.
Lord Davies stressed: “Every penny not paid in rail fare means less money for improvements to services, less money for infrastructure upgrades and higher fares for the vast majority of law-abiding passengers who do pay their fares.
“Often, fare evasion is a crime committed in conjunction with other more serious offences.
“Some of those who have been stopped and searched by police for fare evasion have been found with knives and drugs.”
Outlining his proposed reform, he added: “This amendment would increase the maximum fine that can be issued by officers of the railway operators for fare evasion from level 2 to level 4 on the standard scale, therefore bringing the maximum penalty from £500 to £2,500.
“Furthermore, it would increase the maximum penalties that can be handed out on summary conviction to a level 5 fine or a term of imprisonment of up to six months.”
The peer argued that the law on fare evasion was now outdated.
“Given the scale of the problem, it is clear that these penalties do not reflect either the seriousness of persistent fare evasion or the reality that some offenders treat the current regime as a calculated risk,” he added.
Lord Davies also argued that TfL and other railway staff should be “trained to confront those bumping barriers,” stressing “it is an all too common occurrence to see staff simply watching as people jump the barriers”.
Tory per Viscount Goschen backed up his colleague on this issue.
“I have seen two officials of London Underground at Green Park station late in the evening, chatting to one another—someone comes barging past and they do absolutely nothing,” he said.
Lord Katz, speaking for the Government, said increasing the penalty notice for not having a ticket on the rail network from £20 to £100 in 2022 had “a positive impact” on reducing fare evasion.
But he declined to back a further rise in fines for fare evasion, instead urging TfL to consider some of the measures proposed by a review carried out by the Office of Rail and Road.
They include:
* Making buying the right ticket simpler and easier.
* Better consistency in how passengers are treated when ticket issues arise.
* More consistency and fairness in the use of prosecutions.
* Making information and revenue protection easy to access and understand.
* Providing greater co-ordination, oversight and transparency of revenue protection activity.
The Labour peer added: “It is important that we prevent fare dodging and make sure that there is a proper regime to prevent it.
“Fare simplification is at the heart of this.
“The ORR spoke to TfL as part of its review and it is of course up to TfL whether it takes on its recommendations.”
He also defended TfL action to catch fare dodgers.
“Multiple times I have seen plainclothes crews both on Tube trains and at ticket barriers,” he said.
“I saw one at King’s Cross Tube station ticket barrier just last week.
“There was a large gang of enforcement officers waiting to catch people trying to get in by tailgating those who were paying fares through the automatic gates.”
Lord Davies withdrew the amendment,. as often happens in the Lords, but stressed: “I hope we have been able to impress on the Government the importance of tackling railway crime.”
