A record number of people are being prosecuted for fare dodging on the London Underground as calls continue for a crackdown.
Transport for London (TfL) prosecuted 3,691 people on the Tube in 2024-25, which is the highest level for six years.
Inspectors also issued 13,118 penalty fare notices (PFNs) – which cost £100 or £50 if paid within 21 days – and 850 written warnings.
However, those caught are likely to represent only a small proportion of fare dodgers, with critics claiming the issue has reached ‘horrific’ levels.
Prosecutions also remain lower than 2018-19, when there were 4,919. This year there have been 3,044 prosecutions on the Overground.
The issue was thrust into the spotlight when the Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick filmed himself being threatened when he tried to challenge people who were going through barriers without paying.
Speaking from Stratford station in East London, he said such behaviour was ‘chipping away at society’ – as he called on the authorities to go after lawbreakers.
Susan Hall, the leader of the City Hall Conservatives, told Sir Sadiq Khan earlier this month that fare dodging had reached ‘horrific’ levels and called for tougher penalties for serial offenders.
Anger has also focused on TikTok influencers who have been sharing videos showing Tube passengers who illegally ‘bump’ through the station ticket barriers.
Young men are filming themselves laughing and joking with each other as they push through the wide-aisle gates in videos liked by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
In one clip posted by rapper Stepz, real name Samuel Agyei, he claims that Transport for London (TfL) have ‘upgraded the barriers’ but still pushes his way through.
Another video by a Tiktoker called Tenton, who has 70,000 followers, sees him push through the barriers and ask: ‘Mandem, at what age are we gonna stop bumping train?’
He says: ‘It’s getting silly guys because I’m almost finished uni and I’m still bumping train.’
As a staff member walks past, he tells them: ‘Sorry, you didn’t hear that.’
Tenton continues: ‘Realistically at what age are we gonna stop? When we got grey hairs we’re not gonna be bumping train. Do you get it guys? I think the threshold is 25.’
A third video by user CFCRocky7 features a man showing women how to push through the barrier at Stratford, with the caption: ‘Saving NPCs [non-player characters] from extortionate train fares @Transport for London.’
In another video posted by Parafactual, a series of commuters are shown at East Ham walking through the barriers without paying, following customers who do touch out.
Similar videos have also appeared on other social media sites such as Instagram.
Siwan Hayward, TfL’s director of security, policing and enforcement, said: ‘The overwhelming majority of our customers pay the correct fare, however there is a minority who do attempt to travel without a valid ticket which is a criminal offence.
‘Fare evasion is unacceptable. That is why we are strengthening our capability to deter and detect fare evaders, including expanding our team of professional investigators to target the most prolific fare evaders across the network.
‘This builds on the work of our team of more than 500 uniformed officers already deployed across the network to deal with fare evasion and other anti-social behaviour, keeping staff and customers safe.’
An estimated 3.4 per cent of passengers did not pay fares between April and December 2024 – and they face a fine of £100 if caught, although this is halved if paid within a fortnight
Ms Hayward added: ‘Fare evasion is not a victimless crime. It robs Londoners of vital investment in a safe, frequent and reliable transport network and we are committed to reducing the current rate of fare evasion to 1.5 per cent by 2030.’
TikTok told it has removed videos which violate its community guidelines around criminal behaviour, and has also blocked associated hashtags and search terms related to this.
The social media firm’s guidelines state that it does not allow content which promotes or provides instructions on how to commit criminal activities that may harm people or property.
Between October and December last year, TikTok claims to have proactively removed 97.1 per cent of content which violated its violence and criminal behaviour policies before it was reported to the firm.