South Western Railway (SWR), one of the UK’s largest rail operators, is grappling with a mounting financial headache: fare evasion. Recent figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request reveal SWR is losing an estimated £45.5 million annually due to passengers not paying for tickets. While this number is staggering on its own, it’s just a slice of a much bigger pie—across the UK, fare evasion is costing the rail industry nearly £240 million a year, according to data reported by the BBC and Daily Mail.
SWR’s network stretches across London, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, Dorset, Devon, Somerset, and Wiltshire. The company reports that the overall rate of ticketless travel on its services is now about 3.9%. That’s actually a 40% reduction since 2017, marking the lowest level ever recorded for the operator. But even at this improved rate, the financial drain remains significant.
“Our revenue protection team is focused on effectively deterring fare evasion and bringing down the rate of ticketless travel,” an SWR spokesperson told the BBC. The company has invested heavily in enforcement and technology, but the challenge persists. The fare evasion rate, though reduced, still represents millions in lost revenue that could otherwise be invested in infrastructure, rolling stock, or passenger amenities.
Jeremy Varns of the SWR Watch travel group, which campaigns for better rail services, is among those raising concerns about the current state of affairs. “My primary concern is a lack of accountability. There’s still no publicly accessible contract between the operator and government and Department for Transport,” he said in comments reported by both the BBC and the Daily Mail. Varns believes the service has actually deteriorated since the Labour government’s renationalisation of SWR in May 2025, citing ongoing disruptions and a lack of transparency.
SWR, for its part, acknowledges it is in a “transitional arrangement” following renationalisation, with a final Service Agreement expected to be published once amendments are complete. The company insists it is making “every effort” to ensure passengers can complete their journeys, even during significant disruptions. In line with the National Rail Conditions of Travel, SWR has spent more than £370,000 over the past year reimbursing passengers for hotels and taxis when delays or cancellations have left them stranded.
Operational hiccups haven’t helped matters. In the last twelve months, 7,293 SWR trains were “short formed”—that is, they ran with fewer carriages than planned due to faults or other issues. The company says this affected only 0.18% of services, and new trains are expected to add resilience to the current fleet, minimizing such occurrences in the future.
The fare evasion problem isn’t unique to SWR. Transport for London (TfL) is facing similar challenges, with fare dodgers costing it around £190 million a year. The issue has intensified since the opening of the Elizabeth line, which brought a surge of new passengers and, with many unstaffed stations, more opportunities for fare evaders. According to BBC London, fare evasion now accounts for 3.5% of all fare income on the TfL network, and the agency is aiming to bring that down to 1.5% by 2030—a goal it admits will be tough to achieve.
Fare evaders employ a variety of tactics, from “double gating” (slipping in behind a legitimate passenger) to crawling under barriers. Enforcement officers at hotspots like Ealing Broadway have seen it all. “One of their main excuses is, 'It's very expensive, we can't afford it.' 'We can't afford it' or 'Transport should be free' or 'I left my Oyster card at home or my bankcard at home,' things like that,” revenue protection officer Nasir Ahmadi told BBC London. “The fact of the matter is everyone is paying their fare and they should be paying for their fare. It's not fair on the general public that they are paying for their fare and you're double gating and pushing your way through.”
Fellow officer Tomi Ogunsuyi added, “On a daily basis we usually see people pushing through the barriers. We see them crawling through as well. Our aim is to stop the violence and aggression and to support the front-line staff.”
To combat the problem, TfL has ramped up its enforcement efforts. Since April 2025, more than 30,000 fixed penalty notices—now set at £100—have been issued, and over 9,000 individuals have been reported for possible prosecution. At any given time, there are nearly 10,000 open fare evasion cases under consideration. TfL has also deployed up to 500 revenue inspection officers and conducted more than 2.8 million ticket checks on trains and Tubes. Specialist investigators, plain-clothes operations, data analysis, and CCTV are all part of the arsenal used to catch persistent offenders.
“It's not a victimless crime at all,” Anand Nandha, TfL’s head of compliance, told the BBC. “We have customers who pay their fare and they will end up having to pay more because we are losing more revenue on the network. So we want to ensure that revenue is used for public services and to help [keep] fares at a low level.”
The challenges facing Britain’s railways don’t end with fare evasion. Across the network, service disruptions, train faults, and even criminal activity have played a role in undermining passenger confidence. For instance, signalling cable thefts near Shenfield, Essex, have disrupted Greater Anglia services for two consecutive weekends, as reported by BBC and InTheNews. Meanwhile, CrossCountry has been flagged as the UK’s worst major train operator for cancellations in 2025, with nearly one in ten trains cancelled—a dubious distinction that puts it ahead of other underperformers like TransPennine Express and Avanti West Coast.
Not all the rail news is gloomy, however. In South Wales, Transport for Wales (TfW) has seen more than 1.5 million pay-as-you-go rail journeys since launching its “tap on, tap off” technology in November 2024, making it the fastest-selling rail product for the operator. The system, available at 95 stations as part of the South Wales Metro project, ensures customers get the best possible fare for their journeys and represents a promising step forward in modernizing ticketing and reducing fare evasion through technology.
As the UK rail industry navigates this complex landscape—balancing enforcement, customer service, and technological innovation—it’s clear that the battle against fare evasion is far from over. For operators like SWR and TfL, the stakes are high: protecting revenue, maintaining public trust, and ultimately keeping Britain’s trains running on track for everyone.
