A day in court with Northern as prosecutions of rail fare evaders in Yorkshire increase to 1,200 a month

Giving her occupation as a military police officer, she explained why her conviction for railway fare evasion should be overturned and gave an articulate account of how she had been challenged by a member of Northern staff while waiting in a queue at Leeds Station to buy a ticket.

Given a penalty fare notice for contravening railway by-laws, she ended up in court following a mix-up over her address, and though the magistrates agreed to reduce her fine, the conviction stood.

This woman was one of a number of defendants prosecuted by Northern’s legal team on just one day in August. All had either contested their penalty fare, or ignored a summons to pay it. Two others, an Iranian man from Doncaster and a Polish woman from Scarborough, cited a lack of English as their reason for not being able to use a ticket machine, and interpreters were provided by the court for their cases to be heard. Another man argued that he had been under the impression he was able to purchase a ticket on board his train, and that when he had tried to pay his fare retrospectively, the Northern website had been down.

Stories of ‘unfair’ encounters with railway staff at stations across Yorkshire are common, and many passengers have been critical of what they perceive as heavy-handed tactics and targeting of innocent travellers who had no intention of avoiding payment.

After a day spent watching these prosecutions – which are funded privately by Northern, have no police input and are under criminal law – at Doncaster, The Yorkshire Post was granted an interview with Northern’s head of retail operations, Jason Wade, and revenue operations manager Louise Shearer to find out more about just how pervasive ‘fare dodging’ is and what the rules really are.

Pre-Covid, Northern were prosecuting between 400 and 500 evaders every month, but since 2020, that number has risen to 1,200, and finding court space has become a challenge. Mr Wade points out that ending up in the dock is very much a last resort for Northern and there are numerous stages at which a defendant can avoid the hearing by paying their fine.

"Far too many people ignore our letters. They don’t believe we will take it to court. It’s a bit less common now, as ‘no win, no fee’ solicitors used to take on their cases, but they have backed away recently as not paying for a journey is a strict liability offence. People will get at least two letters, there is often verbal communication with them, and they can settle up right before the court begins sitting.

"A lot of these people believe they were going to pay to travel; but they didn’t do so before they boarded the train.”

Admittedly, the rules about buying before boarding can be confusing and there are multiple relevant factors, including the absence of ticket machines at smaller stations and passenger vulnerabilities.

The onus is ultimately on the customer to purchase before they board where facilities exist for them to do so – i.e, a staffed ticket office or vending machine. Northern conductors have discretion when the passenger is elderly, disabled, or a foreign tourist, and those wishing to pay cash are often allowed to do so on board – though they are supposed to order a ‘promise to pay’ notice from the machine which the conductor can then convert into a ticket.

There are still 40 stations on the Northern network without ticket machines, but in the cases of passengers using the others, Mr Wade casts doubt on whether many of them had true intent to pay.

"They are walking past the opportunity to buy. Often, people leaving at Leeds, for example, find they cannot walk out of the gates without a ticket, so they queue to buy one. There is a perception that our revenue protection officers ‘work the queue’ to find people from stations that have ticket machines and issue them with a penalty notice, but if you got to the front of that queue, the same thing would happen at the ticket window.”

Others claim they were caught out trying to buy their ticket on Northern’s app once on board, only to find their train had disappeared. Mr Wade explains that until recently, a train became unavailable on the app five minutes before it left a station, but now a ticket can be purchased up to the moment of departure.

"We want to try and make it as easy as possible. There are 600 ticket machines, the app is a lot better now. You should only really buy from a conductor if you are paying in cash or can’t use a machine. The conductor can only sell you a full-price ticket and it is cheaper to buy in advance. The rules do allow for discretion and it is up to the judgement of the conductor.”

And what if a ticket machine is ‘not working’? It’s a common excuse given when passengers are challenged, but conductors are equipped with real-time data on machines that are out of order, updated every 15 minutes. If a case ends up in court, this information can be produced again, and the supplier of the machine can provide a history of its operational activity and ticket sales to the second. Customers can independently appeal their penalty fare, and Mr Wade believes around 15 per cent of cases are withdrawn because a ticket machine was proven to be out of action.

There are also ‘priority routes’ within Yorkshire, and surveys are often done by staff who will not pursue passengers unable to produce a ticket, but record the data so that the service can be better monitored in future. The Doncaster to Leeds line is notorious – evaders are nicknamed ‘Doncaster Dodgers’ in the industry. Doncaster, managed by LNER rather than Northern, has no ticket barriers, and the Leeds service calls at several stations at close intervals, making avoidance easier.

The disparities between operating companies on the network has led to a situation where 35 stations Northern serves have gates, but 472 do not – yet 80 per cent of customers start or end their journey at one of the chosen 35. Northern has ambitions to install gates at Doncaster and Sheffield, but funding remains a challenge.

Asked to consider why people who would not leave a restaurant without paying for a meal would quite happily travel on a train for free, Mr Wade gives a philosophical answer: “Ninety-six per cent of our passengers do buy before they board, and of the other four per cent, only a small minority are attempting to evade. Thirty or 40 years ago, we made stations a lot more open, and people could buy from their seat. Over time, the network has got busier and we have not been able to do that. A lot of people seem to think it is our job to find them, without realising the obligation is on them.

"Different train companies take different approaches; in some regions, there is no conductor on board, but at Northern we have one on every train. Across the industry perhaps, this culture has grown.”

Adds Ms Shearer: “One of the reasons people give us is – ‘what does it matter? The train will be running anyway.’ They won’t link their actions to the long-term sustainability of the service. Their conscience isn’t pricked.”