Sadiq Khan Faces Criticism Over Effectiveness of TfL Fare Evasion Crackdown

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come under renewed criticism over Transport for London’s efforts to tackle fare evasion, after figures showed the overall rate of fare dodging across the network remains unchanged despite increased enforcement activity.

The latest data indicates that fare evasion continues to account for 3.5 per cent of journeys, the same level recorded a year earlier. The figure remains significantly above TfL’s long-term target of reducing fare evasion to 1.5 per cent by 2031 and follows the failure to achieve an earlier goal of cutting the rate to one per cent by 2025.

Conservative London Assembly Member Neil Garratt has accused the Mayor of overstating the success of the crackdown and failing to address the scale of the problem.

Garratt argued that fare evasion costs London's transport network around £190 million annually, placing additional pressure on fare-paying passengers while contributing to disorder and increasing the challenges faced by frontline staff.

He claimed that despite a series of announcements promoting enforcement measures, the headline fare evasion rate has shown little improvement over the past year.

The criticism follows a period of increased enforcement activity by TfL, which has reported higher numbers of ticket inspections, penalty fares and successful prosecutions. However, Garratt noted that prosecution figures remain significantly below pre-pandemic levels, despite passenger numbers having largely recovered.

He also highlighted concerns over the collection of penalty fares, pointing out that fewer than half of those issued were paid during the last reporting period. This comes despite TfL increasing the penalty fare from £80 to £100 in an effort to strengthen deterrence.

The issue was raised directly with Khan during a recent Mayor’s Question Time session at City Hall. In response, the Mayor defended the transport authority’s approach, arguing that several enforcement indicators had improved, including increased revenue recovery and reductions in some forms of non-payment.

Khan said TfL remains committed to reducing fare evasion over the coming years and pointed out that London's fare evasion levels compare favourably with those seen in many other major cities and transport networks.

Transport for London has invested almost £22 million in enforcement measures designed to tackle fare dodging, with further activity planned across the network.

Meanwhile, City Hall Conservatives have proposed additional measures to strengthen enforcement, including taller ticket barriers, dedicated fare evasion teams, artificial intelligence-enabled gate technology and a wider public awareness campaign focused on encouraging responsible use of public transport.

The debate highlights the continuing challenge facing TfL as it seeks to reduce revenue losses while maintaining confidence in the capital’s transport system.