Londoners could receive a £500 reward for reporting persistent Tube fare evaders to the authorities under a plan unveiled by a mayoral hopeful. Businessman Alex Challoner, who is seeking to be the Conservative contender for London Mayor, is proposing that people who help catch serial fare dodgers should get 25% of the money that Transport for London (TfL) recovers.
The sum could include unpaid fares, penalty fares and compensation awarded by the courts. Mr Challoner highlighted one case where a fare dodger was recently ordered to pay more than £2,100 after being prosecuted for 181 journeys without paying. If someone who had tipped off the authorities about this individual were to receive a quarter of the penalties, that could amount to around £500.
Fare Watch campaign
Mr Challoner said: “Every Londoner who taps in knows the feeling of watching someone barge through the barrier behind them. They are paying for that person's journey, and under Sadiq Khan nothing ever happens.”
If he gained the keys to City Hall, he vowed to launch a huge Fare Watch publicity campaign to highlight how to report people not paying when they use the Tube. When he launched his bid to be the Tory candidate for Mayor of London, the centrepiece of his plans was to put police on Underground ticket gates to stop people evading fares.
Police on ticket gates
Transport for London staff would be trained to challenge people suspected of dodging fares and to back up officers on the gates. Mr Challoner stressed that fare dodging costs TfL an estimated £190 million a year.
Former Home Secretary Sir James Cleverly is the favourite to be selected by the Tories to take on Lord Sadiq Khan or another Labour candidate if he does not stand in 2028. The Braintree MP and former London Assembly member has already gained the support of more than half the Conservative councillors in London.
Conservative contest
However, Mr Challoner, who founded Cavendish Communications, has made a late challenge to Sir James. He was campaign director for the Steve Norris London Mayoral Campaign in 2000 and ran himself for the Conservative nomination in 2023. Former police commissioner Festus Akinbusoye has also put his name forward, as has Andrew Boff, chairman of the London Assembly.
