South Western Railway lost £45,000,000 last year due to fare dodgers

We’ve all seen them do it – pushing through the barriers and not tapping out at stations.

But now the real cost of fare dodging has been revealed after one train company revealed how much cash they’ve lost due to people failing to buy tickets.

According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by passenger watchdog group SWR Watch, South Western Railway – which operates services inLondon, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset and Wiltshire – said it lost an estimated £45.5 million in annual revenue as a result of passengers not buying tickets.

The FOI also showed that SWR spent more than £370,000 reimbursing passengers for hotels and taxis due to delays and cancellations.

Jeremy Varns, from the SWR Watch, told Metro: ‘It’s now been five months since South Western Railway was brought under public ownership, and passengers are rightly asking when any of the promised improvements will start to materialise.

‘Fare evasion remains a serious issue, yet station gatelines are often left unstaffed and wide open—particularly in the evenings when the network effectively becomes a free-for-all. Honest passengers and taxpayers are being left to foot the bill for those who have no intention of paying for their journeys.’

Varns claimed that SWR has refused to deploy more revenue staff or operate barriers late in the evenings, despite higher levels of fare evasion taking place then.

Metro approached SWR for comment in response.

In a bid to combat fare evasion, enforcement teams have been prowling stations in Greater London and the South West and confronting individuals who have skipped paying for tickets.

In the Channel 5’s series Fare Dodgers: At War with the Law, one commuter was caught after avoiding paying almost £20,000 after short-faring his ticket to Waterloo station over three years.

Another man meanwhile was caught at Wandsworth station after travelling with a child’s ticket, which gives a 50% discount.

The man, who was clearly older than 15, was confronted by the ticket inspectors, and began being quizzed about his date of birth.

He is then seen becoming defensive, asking: ‘Why do you need my date of birth?’

He then appears surprised to hear that each time a child ticket is used at the barrier, it needs to be manually checked by staff.

Over on the tube network, fare evaders reportedly cost Transport for London (TfL) almost £190 million last year alone.

A Freedom of Information request in July revealed that the cost of fare evasion had increased from ‘circa £130m’ in 2022/23 to about £190m in 2023/24 and about £188m in 2024/25.

Ten people are suspected of evading more than £5,000 worth of journeys, which the transport authority is investigating.

Another 52 cases have been referred to TfL’s investigation and prosecution team for evading journeys worth more than £2,500, while 77 cases worth £2,000 are being probed.

A further 120 cases of suspected fare evasion that are being looked into are worth more than £1,500.

TfL is reportedly cracking down on gate pushers.

Over 1,000 people have been referred to TfL’s investigation and prosecution team between June 22 and September 13.

In one instance over the summer, commuter Matt Stevens saw two men calmly walk through the barrier at Woolwich station, with at least two staff standing nearby.

Matt, who pays around £30 a week on the Tube, claimed no one took action despite the brazen move just inches from them.

He told Metro: ‘The staff were stood watching this fare evasion happen just yards from them. They stand and watch and take no action. This happens 1000s of times a day.’

TfL has deployed more than 500 uniformed officers on its network to tackle evasion and other anti-social behaviour.

It aims to reduce fare evasion to 1.5% by 2030 from the current 3.4%.

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