Rail operator c2c which is owned by Trenitalia is working to cutting back on fare evasion on its London to South Essex route.
So far, 2023 has seen over £100,000 made in prosecution payments as c2c's Revenue Protection Team has taken to the network in uniform and undercover in a bid to put a stop to travel without a valid ticket. 2,394 Penalty fares have been made since the start of the year with around 500 people facing possible prosecution.
Over the past year, more than 350 individuals have been through the court system because of fare evasion on the rail operator's trains of which all 350 were found to be guilty. At present, over 6,000 people are being dealt with via the Revenue Protection team for fare evasion.
Fare evasion or ticket evasion is when passengers travel on public transport without purchasing the correct ticket/fare this can be done deliberately or inadvertently and is a criminal office. A conviction for fare evasion will leave an individual with a criminal record!
Extended patrols have been put in place by c2c in order to catch those individuals who dodge paying for travel repeatedly and failure to show a valid ticket for the full journey can lead to significant fines, examples of which are below:
- A fine of £2,048 was given to an individual travelling to West Ham but had only purchased tickets from Basildon to Laindon.
- Short ticketing on repeated journeys was carried out by a couple travelling from Basildon to Laindon who were fined after being stopped and questioned by the Revenue Protection Team at West Ham. The couple have been fined £2,221.
c2c's Head of Revenue Security and Protection, Iain Palmer, said:
“Fare evasion costs the rail industry millions of pounds a year. Everyone travelling by train must hold a valid ticket to travel – for the entire length of their journey – those who don't, risk a fine or potential prosecution and a criminal conviction.”
“The impact of fare evasion is also felt by our fare-paying customers. It's not right for others not to pay for their travel, and I'm sure our customers do not want to sit next to someone who hasn't paid for their full journey.”
“Our teams of Revenue Protection Officers do a fantastic job in bringing those to book for evading their fares, and c2c will continue to tackle this problem. If you know of a fare evader and want to let us know, then please contact us via c2c's Twitter direct messaging platform,”
What about those who put their feet up on the seats and have no consideration on putting their feet down. I’ve seen that on c2c trains so many times as well on Greater Anglia. And I think it’s so disrespectful.
A lot of people would buy a ticket for part of their journey, hoping they can go all the way to their destination, without being caught by an inspector.
Some people will keep on trying to break the rules because they don’t care about anything.