Fare Evasion and Revenue Protection – Making things better for passengers

03 February 2025

Throughout January, we shared our latest thinking in an area of rail travel that always drives a level of debate.

What constitutes fare evasion and how passengers are treated by Train Operating Companies trying to collect lost revenue, is a topic that we have been exploring for many years, and we have gathered a huge amount of useful insight into passenger views on the issue.

We have long been concerned about the complexity of rail fares and ticketing, particularly for passengers who find it hard to buy the right ticket for their journey.

We fully support the principle that all users of rail should be paying for their ticket, but we want to make sure that passengers who make an innocent mistake aren’t punished harshly.

Our set of recommendations to improve the ability of passengers to travel with confidence issued earlier in January was covered extensively in the national and regional media, in particular our proposal for the introduction of a nationwide “Yellow Card” system.

Although this idea was welcomed by many, there were some who misinterpreted the proposal as being something which will make things easier for fare evaders.  This is not the case!

The idea for the proposal is to help protect people who have made an innocent mistake when trying to buy a ticket, or use a railcard, and improve understanding of some of the complexities of the ticketing system.  It would lead to people who have made simple errors being treated more fairly to build trust and confidence in the railway.  Yellow cards would not be issued to deliberate fare evaders, and we support Train Operators in their right to collect money owed to them by people using the railway.

We have found that this view is one shared by many passengers.  In recently published research we delved more deeply into what passengers think about fare evasion, and the methods used by Train Operators to recoup some of the estimated £240 million a year lost revenue

The headline findings from the report show that passengers think that fare evasion is wrong, but what exactly it constitutes and whether it can ever be justified is far more nuanced.  Passengers also feel there are a range of actions that should be considered to address the problems for both passengers and the rail industry.

Although they are unsure about its scale and impact, passengers recognise that fare evasion is a problem that the railway should address, both to challenge antisocial behaviour and to protect against revenue loss.

However, passengers have a different understanding of what fare evasion is compared to that used by the railway. For passengers, intent to evade is key.

The railway is seen to contribute to difficulties in fare selection and ticket purchase, with confusion around prices and terms and conditions making it easy for passengers to be ‘caught out’. The lack of effort to consistently collect fares or check tickets during the journey is seen to undermine security and provide opportunities for fare evasion.

There is an appetite from passengers to see action on fare evasion, particularly through more rigorous revenue protection. However, passengers feel this should take place in tandem with a range of improvements across rail services, including simplifying fares and ticket purchase, increased staffing, embracing technology, closing security gaps and providing a better rail service that builds more trust and affinity between passengers and the railway.

We are taking our research findings and ideas for improvements in revenue protection practices to individual operators and industry bodies. We look forward working with stakeholders across the industry to drive positive change that helps protect revenue and enables passengers to travel confidently with an appropriate ticket for their journey.

Sharon Hedges – Senior Engagement Manager