South Western Railway have announced that they have recovered £3.4 million of taxpayer money in 2024.

Thanks to their revenue protection policies, the money figures affected by fare dodgers have been gathered and recovered.

A new documentary, ‘Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law’, will be shown on Channel 5 tonight (19th May) at 9 pm.

The documentary will highlight South Western’s commitment to making train travel fair for paying customers.

Research gathered by South Western showed that 76% of Brits say that those who fare dodge are exploiting the system, and it isn’t fair to those who pay.

Around 153.2 million journeys are made on South Western’s network each year, with around 7 million made without a valid ticket.

These unpaid fares cost the network around £40 million each year, which could’ve otherwise been invested in improving the network.

YouGov carried out a poll of 2,000 people in the UK, which revealed that 68% of people disapprove of deliberate fare evasion and consider it a serious problem.

Another 67% of people believe that railway networks should be doing more to catch those who are avoiding paying.

Brits stated the reasons for paying fares, with 41% saying avoiding a criminal record or (47%) fines, 37% stating ensuring the railways have money to invest, and 24% to protect taxpayer money.

The network identified repeat offenders and has recovered over £1 million from fraud cases, which included someone who owed over £49,000 for dodging for 5 years.

The documentary follows an investigation of a customer who owed over £19,000.

“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% since 2017 and recover millions of pounds of taxpayer money.”

Peter Williams, Customer and Commercial Director at South Western Railway