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Ten UK rail operators have said they are reviewing fare non-payment prosecutions dating back years after a court challenged the validity of an estimated 75,000 criminal convictions.
DfT OLR Holdings (DOHL), the government company that operates services on the Southeastern, Northern Rail, TransPennine Express and LNER networks, said in a statement on Friday that it was reviewing prosecutions at all four of its operations.
FirstGroup has confirmed it is reviewing prosecutions across its rail operations – South Western Railway, Great Western Railway, Avanti West Coast, Hull Trains and Lumo. Greater Anglia, which operates services from London’s Liverpool Street to Essex and East Anglia, also said it was reviewing past prosecutions.
The review comes after six “test cases” of fare non-payment at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this week. The chief judge said the defendants had been advised by the court service that their convictions were “likely to be unlawful”.
The test cases involved prosecutions brought by train operators under the ‘single justice’ (SJP) process, which was set up under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
The SJP allows minor criminal cases to be heard in private by magistrates rather than in open court.
Many train operators were prosecuted for undercutting fares under the Railway Regulation Act 1889.
However, the 2015 legislation did not allow railroad companies as private plaintiffs to use the 1889 law under the expedited SJP process, leaving an estimated 75,000 cases potentially illegal.
DOHL said it remains committed to ensuring passengers have a valid ticket. However, he added: “DoHL rail operators stopped bringing new cases to the single trial for offenses under the Railway Regulation Act 1889 in January and are reviewing its previous use.”
FirstGroup also said it was reviewing past cases and stopped prosecuting under the SJP “earlier this year”.
Greater Anglia said it stopped prosecuting the SJP in March. “We are currently reviewing previous cases and any related implications, taking into account further official guidance on this matter,” it said.
The train operators will be able to make their views known at the next magistrates’ hearing on 19 July.
Any decision to drop past criminal prosecutions could prove logistically complicated for operators if it required them to pay back fines and lift other enforcement measures.
One major train operator – GTR, which runs Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express services – said it had never used SJP to be prosecuted under the 1889 legislation. Chiltern Railways and c2c also said they had not used the procedure.
Transport for London, which operates the London Underground, London Overground, Elizabeth Line, Docklands Light Railway and Croydon Tramlink, said it used the procedure under separate legislation not affected by the decision.
Since the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, fare revenue from the franchised operation of passenger trains has been passed directly to the Ministry of Transport. Train operators are instead paid an administrative fee for running the services.
Penelope Gibbs, director of campaign group Transform Justice, said there appeared to be an “injustice” in the fare evasion process and the approach was “completely inconsistent”.
“Some people are offered the option to pay the right fare; others are fined and others are prosecuted,” she said.