FARE DODGERS COST LONDONERS £83MILLION A YEAR - FEATHERSTONE

10.14.39am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 28th Sep 2004

The Liberal Democrats will later today call for the Mayor to treble fines and launch a sweeping clampdown on fare dodgers as they revealed new figures showing that more than £83million a year is lost because of Tube and bus fare evasion.

The figures, taken from Mayoral answers, show that £40million a year is being lost through fare dodging on the Tube, with around a further £43.8million being lost on the buses. Around 120,000 bus fares a day are being dodged.

Lib Dem London Assembly Transport Spokesperson, Lynne Featherstone, said:-

"Fare dodgers are no better than shoplifters and it is time that the Mayor and Transport for London to come down hard on people who try to avoid paying for a ticket.

"Millions of pounds is lost each year to people who are breaking the law. The failure to tackle fare dodging hits the pockets of law abiding commuters who pay extra fare increases to make up for those who get something for nothing. Cracking down on fare evasion would crack down on fare rises.

"There is no excuse for people not to buy a ticket and there is even less of an excuse for the Mayor not to come down hard on these law breakers. It is time that fare dodgers received punishment that fits the crime."

Ends

Notes to editor

Figures taken from Mayor Question written answers show that :-

Number of daily journeys on London buses % fare evasion Total number of daily evaded fares Cost per day Cost per year

6,000,000 2% 120,000 £120,000 £43.8million

On the Tubes, around £10million is lost every quarter from fare evasion. This gives £40m a year. With £43.8million evaded on the buses every year, the total lost revenue is £83.8million

London Underground fare evasion

Question No: 1234 / 2004

Lynne Featherstone

How much fare revenue is estimated to have been lost to London Underground during the first three months of 2003 and the first three months of 2004? Will you consider increasing the penalty for fare evasion on the Tube in line with the proposals for overground rail?

The London Underground fraud survey is conducted quarterly and the revenue loss associated with ticketing irregularities for the periods highlighted is as follows:

· First three months 2004 = £10m

Bendy buses (revenue protection)

Question No: 1228 / 2004

What do you estimate the rate of fare evasion to be on bendy buses and what is being done to minimise this? What proportion of revenue protection officers' time is dedicated to bendy buses?

Currently, 83% of bus passengers pre-pay for their bus travel. The current detected fare evasion rate for services across the network is running at between 1.5% - 2%, with some sections of routes obviously producing rates either side of the average.

Check rates vary across all bus routes, depending on the fraud levels observed. This applies equally to those routes operated with articulated buses. These routes are checked mainly by Revenue Protection Inspectors (RPI) working in groups to ensure that TfL better identify fare evaders. Checks are also conducted using Inspectors in plain clothes.

The proportion of Inspector's time varies depending on the strategy outlined above. However there is currently additional resource dedicated to articulated buses as they are introduced to ensure passengers understand and adhere to the fare payment system.