Confronting Fare Dodgers at Ealing Broadway Station

BBC reporter joins enforcement team to see how they are tackling the problem

A suspected fare dodger walks away from enforcement officers at Ealing Broadway . Picture: BBC

October 23, 2025

A further insight was provided into the problem of fare evasion during a recent visit to Ealing Broadway Station by BBC London’s Tom Edwards.

There to hear from Transport for London (TfL) staff how it is tackling the problem, the accompanying film crew capture a confrontation between enforcement officers and an alleged fare dodger.

TfL has intensified its efforts to tackle fare evasion across the capital, with Ealing Broadway emerging as a key hotspot.

During the visit, TfL staff initially approached a passenger flagged for travelling on a child fare. When asked to produce a valid ticket, the individual claimed the barrier had swallowed it and attempted to talk his way out of the situation. The encounter escalated before the passenger fled the station, highlighting the limitations of TfL’s hands-off enforcement policy. Officers are not permitted to restrain or detain individuals, prioritising their own safety during confrontations.

Revenue protection officers Nasir Ahmadi and Tomi Ogunsuyi told the BBC they regularly encounter passengers using excuses such as forgetting their payment cards or claiming transport should be free. “It’s not fair on the general public,” Ahmadi said. “Everyone is paying their fare and they should be paying for their fare.”

TfL estimates that fare evasion costs the network approximately £190 million annually — around 3.5% of its total fare income. The problem has worsened since the opening of the Elizabeth line, which added new stations with limited staffing and increased passenger volumes. TfL aims to reduce fare evasion to 1.5% by 2030, though officials acknowledge the scale of the challenge.

Ealing Broadway, a busy interchange served by the Elizabeth line, District and Central lines, and National Rail, has seen a rise in fare evasion incidents. Officers report frequent cases of “double gating,” where individuals slip through barriers behind paying passengers, as well as physical attempts to hurdle or crawl under gates.

Since April 2025, TfL has issued over 30,000 fixed penalty notices — now set at £100 — and referred more than 9,000 cases for possible prosecution. In the same period, it recorded 9,934 open cases under review. Enforcement teams have conducted more than 2.8 million on-board checks across the network.

TfL’s head of compliance, Anand Nandha, said the organisation has recently recruited a team of specialist investigators to target persistent offenders. These teams use travel pattern analysis, CCTV, and plain-clothes operations to identify and track fare evaders. “It’s not a victimless crime,” Nandha told the BBC. “We want to ensure that revenue is used for public services and to help keep fares at a low level.”

TfL currently deploys around 500 revenue inspection officers across its network and is exploring further technological and infrastructure upgrades to reduce fare evasion.