The Croydon tram network has a fare evasion rate almost double the rest of the capital’s transport system
Croydon’s trams are the worst part of the Transport for London system for fare dodgers, according to official figures from City Hall.
Fares fair: almost 1 in 12 tram passengers are taking us all for a ride
Fare evasion across the capital is twice as bad as previously thought, as TfL and Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan pledge to crackdown on fare evasion.
Fare dodging was estimated to cost TfL £190million last year, up from £130million in 2022-2023, money that might otherwise be reinvested in the transport network.
Croydon’s tram network – which operates an “open” system, with no barriers at tram stops on the network from Beckenham Junction to Wimbledon – had a fares evasion rate of 7.2% in 2024-2025 (down from 8% the previous year). That’s almost one passenger in every 12 riding on a tram, and comes despite regular sweeps along the tram route by teams of four to six ticket inspectors.
TfL recently said fare evasion across its services – the Tube, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR, Croydon tram and the bus network – had fallen year on year from 3.8% of journeys in 2023-2024 to 3.5% in 2024-2025.
That suggests that fare evasion on the trams is more than twice as bad as the TfL average.
In a report being presented at a City Hall meeting this week, TfL officials have provided a more detailed breakdown, showing how fare dodging on the Tube was happening at about twice the rate on buses.
Tube fare evasion averaged 4.8% over the course of the year.
Fare evasion on the Docklands Light Railway was higher, at 5.4% during the final quarter of the 2024-2025 financial year.
The DLR, like the trams, has an “open” system, where passengers tap in to pay their fares, without the use of barriers.
Open system: tram passengers are trusted to tap-in before their journeys
TfL described fare-dodging as a “selfish” activity carried out by a “criminal minority”. It admitted that other passengers had to pay higher fares to account for those who failed to pay for their travel.
Fares on the TfL systems are expected to rise by an average of 5.8% next year, in line with the government formula of inflation plus 1%. That is expected to include the first bus and tram fare rises since 2023.
TfL says that since April, it has increased the amount of on-train checking of contactless cards to catch “opportunistic offenders” seeking to avoid tapping for their journeys. More than 1.8million contactless cards had been checked, leading to the recovery of more than £1.6million in unpaid fares.
The TfL report says: “Fare evasion takes away vital revenue from us and denies Londoners investment in a safe, frequent and reliable transport service.
“We are taking a bold, target-driven approach to tackling fare evasion and aim to reduce fare evasion to a rate of under 1.5% by 2030.
“Most of our customers – over 96% – pay the correct fare for the journeys that they make. It is not fair for our customers that a selfish, criminal minority refuse to pay.
“Fare evasion is the trigger in over half of all incidents of work-related violence and aggression. Fare evasion undermines the confidence and safety of our frontline teams and fare-paying customers.”
There were almost 3.6billion journeys on TfL services in 2024-2025, generating almost £5.3billion in income from passengers.
Grim reading: the TfL fare dodgers’ league table
A TfL spokesperson said: “Fare evasion is a criminal offence and robs Londoners of investment in safe, clean and reliable public transport.
“That’s why we are strengthening our capability to deter and detect fare evaders, including expanding our team of professional investigators and using the latest technology to target the most prolific fare evaders across the network.”
Read more: Inflation spike sets Transport for London fares to rise by 5.8%
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TfL maybe should consider reinstating ticket machines at tram platforms… then people might be able to buy a ticket rather than relying on an app that was unavailable for three months following a data breach.
I don’t really want to be dodging shoplifters in a local convenience store.
The absence of a bus-like ticket-checking driver / conductor or a railway-like ticket barrier is a major flaw in the tram system.
I do not think that the fare evasion level can be measured and this is an underestimate.
The statistic must be based on inspectors checking tickets and dividing the number of those without tickets by the number checked. This completely misses out those without tickets looking out for nspectors about to get on at platforms and getting off themselves.
Some years ago, after a rare inspector check, a smartly dressed gent near me, explained to another passenger that he travelled without paying, but kept notes in his pocket to cover the spot fine. The odds of being challenged made it worthwhile to him.
A case reported on IC about a year ago was of a female passenger being detained and, in her opinion, harassed by an inspector with a police officer on walking away from the challenge. It emerged that she did have a ticket. However it was later reported that as a result if the incident, inspection and policing was reduced or discontinued, I forget which and for how long.
I recall the case reported in IC. The poor inspector suffered a load of abuse when the passenger kicked off. Social media, not IC, has a lot to answer for.
I’ve often stood at tram stops and seen a lot of people appear and make no attempt to swipe in, so the figure is no surprise and may even be higher as many get away with it and don’t appear in the figures. To be fair to TfL, I’ve also seen more Revenue Protection Officers on trams than anywhere else so they are trying to do something. Reinstating ticket machines is not necessarily the solution as the reason is that people won’t pay, rather than can’t. The vast majority of people do pay on buses by phone or card, which probably proves the point.
Indeed it’s the lack of any visible staff which encourages people. Bendy buses (© Livingstone, K) were notorious for fare dodging as the miscreants could easily pile in the back without tapping in.
I guess its no surprise that its harder to dodge fares on the buses when you actually have to walk past the bus driver, unless of course you hop on in the middle. Given staffing cuts on the Underground meaning that some stations have periods of time when the gates are open, its hardly surprising that it is higher there.
The same would apply to the tram network. The answer is partly having many more staff, a conductor-like person on the tram and more at underground stations. But no one will pay for that.
A ‘conductor-like’ person sounds interesting. What did you have in mind? Will he or she have a peaked cap?