Two people a day are being caught fare dodging in West Yorkshire, as the number on trains without a ticket hits a six-year high.
Passengers were taken to magistrates’ courts 846 times in 2016 for boarding a train in West Yorkshire without a valid ticket.
The number of people taken to court has risen 47%, from 575 in 2015, and is the highest number since at least 2011. The number of prosecutions is 53 times higher than the 16 recorded in 2011.
Across England and Wales, passengers were taken to magistrates’ courts 29,868 times in 2016 for boarding a train without a valid ticket.
The number of people taken to court has risen by a quarter in a year, from 24,180 in 2015, and is the highest number since at least 2011, according to figures supplied by the Ministry of Justice following a Freedom of Information request.
As well as this, passengers were taken to magistrates’ courts 7,595 times in 2016 for failing to hand over a valid ticket after boarding a train to travel in a non-compulsory ticket area.
This offence would most likely cover passengers travelling from stations without barriers, who falsely claim there were no facilities to buy a ticket before they got on the train.
The number of people taken to court has fallen by 10% in a year, from 8,438 in 2015, its lowest number in at least six year.
There were also 63 people prosecuted for entering a compulsory ticket area without a ticket and 425 people were prosecuted in 2016 for occupying a reserved seat without a valid ticket, usually for being in first class without a first class ticket, although this was down from 861 prosecutions in 2012.
