A TRAIN operator based in York has seen the number of penalty fares for those travelling without a ticket fall by more than 20 per cent.

Northern issued 41,234 penalty fares between January 23 and December 23 last year, compared to 52,394 for the same period in 2022.

The £100 ‘fine’ came into effect on January 23 last year after being £20 since 2005 – a figure Northern said the rail industry felt was too low and no longer a deterrent to would-be evaders.

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The company said as part of the government’s public consultation, 69 per cent of respondents agreed that £20 was too low as a penalty fare.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “This is a significant and much welcomed drop in the number of penalty fares issued.

“The appetite for ‘risking it’ has clearly taken a hit in the past 12 months – and the increase in the penalty fare is no doubt a factor.”

The company said its approach to fare evasion in recent years includes sending teams to known hotspots, introducing new technology to help with ticket checks at stations and on-board its trains and clamping down on cases of digital fraud.

Mr Powles added: “It’s worth remembering that upwards of 95 per cent of our customers do the right thing and buy a ticket before they travel.

“The reduction in attempted fare evasion is a victory for taxpayers who ultimately foot the bill for those that try not to pay.”

The Office of Rail and Road has published figures on passenger journeys made by train operators for the first three-quarters of 2023.

It said that for January to March 2023, passenger journeys on Northern was at 83 per cent of pre-pandemic levels (January to March 2019) and that for April to September 2023, the figure was higher than for the equivalent period in 2022.