I saw 62 fare dodgers in 90 minutes on the Tube. It’s everywhere. Transport for London loses £130m a year to bumpers and tailgaters on the Tube. We watched the gates with plainclothed inspectors trying to stem the tide
by TimesandSundayTimes
I saw 62 fare dodgers in 90 minutes on the Tube. It’s everywhere. Transport for London loses £130m a year to bumpers and tailgaters on the Tube. We watched the gates with plainclothed inspectors trying to stem the tide
by TimesandSundayTimes
28 comments
People justifying stealing/theft is absolutely crazy.
You’re telling me people can’t afford a bus fare of £1.75 if they can’t afford the train? Yes I understand people may not have the money but as the article states 62 in 90mins is crazy. The added pressure on the train lines are only recouped from paying customers, a lot who don’t have much disposable income themselves.
Let me guess, they should also shoplift because money is tight and would be the right thing to do?
One of my favourite games I play with a colleague is “Will they, won’t they” at the barriers. Farringdon is a good place for that. Croydon is no good as it’s too easy.
Those that pay their way are having to feel the squeeze all
Over now. No one cares & does what they want either shoplifting or bunking fares.
The old bill are after daft tweets & parking fines….
We are in trouble sadly as people justify all this behaviour….
Classic luxury beliefs on display defending criminals
Lots of people who can barely afford the tube do pay for it or use the bus/walk.
Most people I see skipping the fare are in 20s/30s and they are rarely dressed like they are homeless. They just don’t want to pay as they believe themselves to be above it.
Like pretending shoplifting is about starving people lifting bread or poor mums taking formula, it is a part of often organised criminality and the general breakdown of social trust. Which disproportionately affect rule abiding people living in poor areas
Why don’t we all give up paying/playing by the rules and go full mad max. FFS.
It’s wild to me when people say “they can’t afford it”… I moved from London 6 months ago with work. Where I live now costs £2 per person per trip to take a bus…and one that isn’t electric with AC or has USB chargers
People will just take what they can
Someone tailgated in front of me at rush hour last week. Fucking prick set the gate into alarm with loads of people behind pressuring to go through. Once I did get through, I was very tempted to run after him and beat the shit out of him for fucking me over, just so that he could steal from our transport network.
I saw 62 fare dodgers in 90 minutes on the Tube. It’s everywhere
Transport for London loses £130m a year to bumpers and tailgaters on the Tube. We watched the gates with plainclothed inspectors trying to stem the tide

Transport for London staff say the pandemic was the moment when casual rule-breaking became normalised
Sian Bradley
Saturday March 08 2025, 7.20pm, The Sunday Times
The way they walked caught my eye. The two older teenagers swaggered side by side towards the gate as they exited Stratford station. One shoved it open, holding it for his accomplice to barge through. Ten minutes later, they returned, repeating the trick as they re-entered the Tube network. This time they were carrying two Burger King takeaway bags.
These two young men — who looked only 17 or 18 — represent more than a momentary rule breach. They’re part of a £130 million-a-year fare-dodging epidemic that is creating a hole in Transport for London’s (TfL) finances, and leaving law-abiding Londoners to pick up the tab.
What might shock a tourist barely now elicits a tut from the weary commuter. Shoulder-barging through barriers, tailgating behind unsuspecting passengers — watch long enough, and you’ll see it happen again and again.
As a test, I decided to spend a Thursday morning at Stratford station in east London, a known hotspot for barrier dodging. If I’m honest, I expected it to be a dud — the first stakeout rarely delivers. But what I saw shocked me.
Over 90 minutes at Stratford station, I counted at least 62 people slipping through the barriers without paying. They did so in clear sight of TfL staff, who were apparently powerless to intervene. Not a single one of the young men — only a fifth of offenders were women — was stopped.
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Some were flagrant in their transgression. Others pretended to wave their pass over the reader before sneaking through. Another wasn’t quick enough, catching her backpack in the gate, escaping only after some frantic wiggling and assistance from another woman. One man who was struggling to get through the barriers was helped by a second man who propelled him to the disabled access barrier to try again. Once through, the pair high-fived.
Fare evasion across the whole TfL network, including buses, sits at 3.8 per cent. This is more than double the target of 1.5 per cent, and by its nature the figure recorded is likely to be an underestimate. Rail operators don’t record a similar figure, but across Britain evasion is estimated to cost them about £240 million a year.
TfL is well aware of the problem and identifies a hardened minority of about 400 transgressors who habitually avoided paying for all or part of their journeys, adding up to more than £363,000 of avoided fares. One offender was fined £1,800 after 193 unpaid journeys — £1,200 worth of free rides.
But my experience at Stratford, and indeed anecdotes from pretty much all regular Tube users, show that the practice is more widespread than just a few hundred regular evaders. Some 79 per cent of passengers in the capital surveyed by YouGov in December said they had seen fare dodging take place.
The ‘bumping’ boom
Fare dodging is a source of considerable frustration for the many passengers who dutifully pay for their increasingly expensive journeys. So what lies behind its prevalence?
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As of March 2, a single peak-time journey in the central zones of 1 to 4 costs £4.60, making the Tube the most expensive public transport network in the world. A single Tube fare is triple the cost of that in Seoul and more than double Madrid.
Tfl does operate a fairly generous concession system, but clearly these price hikes, alongside inflation and a general cost-of-living squeeze, are a factor driving the fare-dodging epidemic. Social media has also become an issue, as “bumping” videos on TikTok show young people filming themselves cheating the system and even providing tips on how best to do it.
Offenders also use social media to share information and evade inspectors. “We are trying to be more dynamic and move if nothing is happening, because then we know that word has gotten out [that we’re here],” said Marlon Box, an enforcement officer.
TfL staff point to the chaos of the pandemic as a moment when casual rule-breaking became normalised. But it can also become self-perpetuating: one academic study of fare evasion in Melbourne, Australia, suggested that once it becomes normalised, or unpunished, it “spreads like contagion”.
There has also been a surge in shoplifting, which rose 48 per cent in London last year, and pickpocketing, which rose 38 per cent. Similar rises were recorded all over the country, suggesting overstretched police and “broken windows theory”, where the visible presence of petty crime encourages further transgression.
To ensure my first stakeout wasn’t an anomaly, I decided to try another morning at Stratford. This time, eight of TfL’s 400-plus specialist enforcement officers surrounded the barriers. In their presence, the usual flow of law-breakers dried up, scared away, perhaps to another exit. It made for dull viewing — until 9.30am that is, when the officers left. By 9.33am, two men had slipped through a disabled gate. Back to business as usual.
The question many passengers ask is why station staff don’t step in? It is not as if they’re ignorant. When I told one guard about my experiment, he shrugged and pointed me towards another exit: “You should stand there, you’ll see at least 100.”
“[Station staff] can report evasion, but their main role is to provide customer service. They are not expected to challenge them,” said Jon Poett, TfL’s policy manager.
It is a not dissimilar story on the buses. Occasionally drivers will halt their journey to haul back someone who hasn’t “tapped on”, but far more often they will simply tap a button on their “iBus” operating system. That data then informs where TfL can send their uniformed ticket inspectors. Mostly though, everyone just sighs and drives on.
On my third and final London Underground stakeout, I broke my own record and spotted another 68 evaders.
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By now, I had identified different types of fare dodgers: the arrogant barger, the opportunistic tailgater, the frantic scrambler. Most were quite young (though not under 16) and few were over 30. I mulled this over as I tapped out of the station, almost bumping into a man who had been hovering the other side of the gates. He scurried past me, beaming a thank you as he went past.
‘People have become more assertive’
Is TfL doing enough to address this problem? After my crime-spotting binge, I joined revenue protection officers on an “op” at South Kensington station. Within ten minutes at the barrier, three people received on-the-spot £100 fines (the standard penalty fare for those caught without a ticket). One woman caught tailgating complained to Luke, an inspector, that she couldn’t afford the fine. He was resolute.
“People work out ways to evade paying,” said Marlon Box. “People claim they forgot their pass, are only going one stop, or simply can’t afford the fares.”
TfL’s arsenal in this battle includes beefed-up inspections and strict social media messaging. But it is up against an emboldened public. “They can be contentious, drunk, or just having a bad day,” Box said. “The public knows we can’t do more than self-defence, so they say, ‘You can’t touch me.’ Especially since Covid, people have become more assertive.
“We aren’t all 7ft bouncer types. Our best diffuser is the smallest,” he points to Cheryl Joseph, a smiley, slight woman who barely reaches chest height of the male officers around her. “She’s brilliant at placating people.”
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TfL’s team of 400 officers can’t possibly cover all 334 railway stations and 270 Underground stations simultaneously. Instead, they deploy strategically to high-evasion locations, including — perhaps surprisingly — central stations such as Waterloo, Angel, Liverpool Street and London Bridge, the entire District line and almost every end-of-the-line station, such as High Barnet. But with more than ten million journeys on the network every day, it is a game of Whac-A-Mole.
Perhaps the biggest disincentive to action for many TfL officers is the risk of violence. Approximately half of all reported violence against frontline transport workers stems from fare evasion and ticket disputes.
“We had an increase in bad assaults last year,” said Box. “People were punched so badly their noses broke.” One person, he recalls, “even fly-kicked a female officer in the stomach”.
I wonder how many people don’t bother paying for the DLR. That’s got to be easy mode, surely?
This really is simple, install better gates, they have already been designed and tested elsewhere, I know it’s costs money to install but it eventually pays for itself. You can even fire the ticket and loss prevention officers eventually for an even better ROI.
Post Covid, we entered a new era of blatant ‘self entitlement without fear of repercussions’.
It’s everywhere. Parking on pavements, avoiding rail fares, conversations/music on speaker on public transport, people leaving rubbish in public parks after a BBQ, leaving scooters literally anywhere….
Another example I had the misfortune of encountering was in my local ‘busy’ supermarket recently. 3 people (2 men and a woman), mid 50s, standing chatting having a conversation slap bang in middle of a isle. I had my headphones on at the time but had turned the music off momentarily. I had a trolley with me and basically said ‘er, can I get passed please?’. And as I proceeded to move passed she said ‘yeh we are having a conversation here…..’.
Christ, I wish I was quick to come back with a response like ‘it’s a supermarket – not a fucking nightclub you cheeky cunt’, but i was taken back at how blatantly she did not give a fuck, that i was lost for words…
I took my wife to London yesterday. £41 for the pair of us from Twyford (Berkshire) into and around London.
In contrast, I went from Innsbruck Austria to Munich Germany on Tuesday just gone and it cost me and my friend £75 total.
Oh, and the train to London was delayed by 15 minutes.
Crumble crumble.
Just have random police checks and arrest the more flagrant ones (the ones that just barge through the gates, for a start), throw them in a cell for a couple of days and slap a massive fine on them. Taze them if they resist or react violently.
Most will stop.
I don’t like stealing but when prices get so high it’s inevitable that a certain amount of people will avoid paying. A tube journey can cost almost £5 sometimes which is mental. I bet you if prices went down or a reasonable travel card was introduced that fair dodging would decrease. Especially if you combine that carrot with the stick of stronger enforcement of fare dodging
It costs me £10 a day to get to work and back, that’s £200 pounds a month. TFL is very expensive but obviously that doesn’t mean people should bump but I’m saying its a potential factor as to why people do it.
I predict we’re going to end up with China style facial recognition connecting these fares to your personal bank account so you conveniently don’t have to bother tapping but you also can’t avoid paying.
We already have the facial recognition capabilities…
I just read the other day that London is now the most expensive city to travel around in IN THE WORLD.
Yes I do pay my own TFL fares and don’t skip, but if I think about why I don’t dodge fares, it’s mostly down to social pressure and the notion of legal repercussions, not because I agree with the endless hiking of fairs for Londoners, who are already crushed by the cost of living, rent, utilities, not to mention subpar wages.
Naturally there’s a part of me that feels some frustration when people jump the gates or double up on others because they don’t want to pay, but what do you expect? People are tired of being taxed at source for everything they do in this city. It feels like you are having the money squeezed out of you constantly just for existing in public space, absolutely ridiculous.
I’d probably dodge more fares if I had the temerity to, or perhaps the ‘im past caring’ attitude to the potential legal ramifications of it, or just plain ignorance of what can happen.
So often we look at the small fish perpetuating a symptomatic aspect of a structural problem, rather than focusing on the structural issue: SUBSIDISE LONDONERS. Have a higher rate for visitors/tourists. Loads of other cities do it!!!
Every time I go to Stratford I see people tailgating or simply forcing their way through the disabled gates.
The wife and I did a day trip recently using the train. Normally when commuting I am not hanging around but on this day we were at the station about 20 mins early and it was cold so we sat inside. 3 times we saw someone get off the train, not have a ticket and give some absolute BS excuse and the member of staff at the barrier just let them through. It was infuriating.
In Brisbane, Australia all fares on public transport are .50cents.. I’d say around 80p in local lolly .. no matter how far.. total is .50 cents.
Put their photos up every day on the TFL monitors. A rolling carousel of criminals. Also create a website with the photos where everyone can go and look at the little sh*ts.
Not defending the dodgers, but maybe put the price down and get rid of all the parasites siting in their cabins In the entrance watching movies?
I don’t blame people trying to cheat the system because when we look around and all we see is the rich cheating the system.
started in COVID with politicians breaking the rules consistently and getting away with it.
What Ethnicity were they?
Do people really think TFL travel would be cheaper if all the fare bumpers started paying? They’d just pocket the extra £130m to pay out to the top level or consultants.
I always pay, even thought I don’t make much, but god is it infuriating when station staff give me grief and won’t let me though when even though I tapped and paid but the gates didn’t open, meanwhile 8 people bump the gates right in fron of them and they don’t bat an eye.
There’s a cost of living crisis, housing is spiraling upwards in price, wages are being suppressed, london now has the highest public transport costs in the world, of course people are going to jumo the trains.
I work at a train station at the gates. I don’t think the general public realises just how many people a day push through the barriers or travel without tickets. When it happens I often get people looking at me as if they say “aren’t you going to do something”.
About 50% of the people I see do it are children/teens. I imagine at least some of their parents are aware they do this because if you’re not giving your child money for a ticket how exactly do you think they get to school? When I work weekends, most fare evaders I see are children/teens.
I see a lot of people defending the fare evaders and while I have a great deal of sympathy for the insane price of tickets and the quality of train services. That doesn’t excuse the constant daily abuse I get from fare evaders for simply asking to see a ticket or telling them I am not allowed to let them through the barriers without one.
Kids have been doing this for years but fully grown adults fare dodging has increased massively, sometimes seems a free for all sadly. So many mugs about aaaaah
I’m paying 6 quid a day for all these fare dodging bellends to ride for free. Make them all pay and cut the fare for everyone
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