SWR loses nearly £50 million in annual revenue due to fare evasion
Following a Freedom of Information request, South Western Railway say they have lost £45.5 million due to passengers not paying for tickets
A Freedom on Information request has revealed that South Western Railway has lost nearly £50 million in its annual revenue due to fare evasion.
The data was released after the campaign group 'SWR Watch travel group' submitted a Freedom of Information request to SWR, which said the overall rate of ticketless travel was about 3.9%.
An SWR spokesperson said: "Our revenue protection team is focused on effectively deterring fare evasion and bringing down the rate of ticketless travel."
It is estimated fare evasion costs nearly £240m a year.
Earlier this year SWR said its revenue officers have recovered £3.4m from fare dodgers over the course of last year.
One persistent offender was found to have evaded £49,000 over five years.
Back then, SWR estimated that ticketless travel cost the company £40 million annually, £5 million less than the data from the Freedom of Information request.
The train operator added that ticketless travel had reduced by 40% since 2017 and was now at its lowest ever level.