Fare evasion: It's not worth the gamble | Trains to/from London, Southend & Essex with c2c Rail

c2c | About c2c | Our policies | Revenue protection policy | Fare evasion: It’s not worth the gamble

c2c is committed to tackling fare evasion. Revenue from fares is crucial for investing in safe, clean and reliable public transport. Fare evasion is a criminal offence estimated to cost the rail industry around £240m+ a year, and c2c strives to ensure that wherever possible, fare evaders themselves, not fare or taxpayers, pay the cost of fare evasion.

What is fare evasion?

Fare or ticket evasion, is travelling on public transport without paying the correct fare for your journey, deliberately or inadvertently.

Fare evasion has become more complex than simply not buying a ticket or travelling on a discounted ticket in recent times. Repeat offenders attempt to outsmart the system through fraudulent refund requests, delay repay claims and a process known as ‘short faring’.

What are the consequences of fare evasion?

There is no excuse not to purchase a ticket before you travel. Tickets can be purchased via our app, website, ticket offices or one of more than 50 ticket machines across the network.

Fare evasion can result in a Penalty Fare of £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable for your intended journey.
Fare evasion robs c2c’s community of vital investment in a safe, frequent and reliable transport. The lost revenue cannot be reinvested to improve our transport network.
Persistent fare evaders, once identified, will be prosecuted for historic cases of fare evasion as well as the journey for which they were caught. This carries an uncapped fine resulting in one customer paying £10k back in avoided fares.
Fare evasion can result in a criminal record which can affect your current or future employability.
Perpetrators of ticket fraud are prosecuted under the Fraud Act 2006. Other types of fare evasion are prosecuted under the provisions of the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 and the Railway Byelaws made pursuant to the Transport Act 2000.

What are we doing to combat fare evasion?

Technology

The increase in fare evaders caught, is due to better technology which has improved the ability to detect and investigate prolific offenders. People are not aware that all tickets require electronic transactions, our systems are able to identify suspicious activity and bring it to the attention of our specialist investigators. We are able to detect fare evasion from patterns in ticketing and passenger data, identifying people who avoided paying for all or part of their journey.
Staffing

c2c has a comprehensive programme in place to deter offenders, with multiple teams of revenue officers undertaking ticket inspection and revenue enforcement activity across the network every day. Station staff also provide insight and information about fare evaders to revenue enforcement and investigations teams to take action. We are constantly increasing the number of Revenue Protection Officers on stations and trains across the route, but you may not notice them as not all will be in uniform.
Safety

Fare evasion and ticket disputes are also a precursor to a large number of reported work-related violence and aggression incidents towards frontline transport workers in rail. Antisocial behaviour and vandalism to train & stations typically stem from fare evaders; the harm they can cause is much greater than the missed cost of a ticket. c2c does not tolerate any violence, aggression or threatening behaviour towards staff or customers and always seeks the strongest possible action against offenders.
Everyone should be able to go about their day without fear or intimidation and c2c will always work with the police to push for the strongest sentences possible for offenders.

Don't get caught out

Dos	Don'ts
Purchase before you travel	Attempt to buy on the train
Purchase the right ticket for your travel	Attempt to buy at the end of your journey
Validate your e-ticket and the start and end of your journey	Purchase a discounted ticket if you are not eligible
Remember to tap in and tap out if paying with a Smartcard, Oyster Card or contactless pay as you go device	Travel beyond the TfL fare zone without purchasing a valid ticket.