Latest news with #fareevaders
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Fact check: Video has been online for months before Robert Jenrick ‘expose'
A widely shared social media post claimed Transport for London (TfL) is 'suddenly enforcing the barriers after @RobertJenrick's expose'. It was posted alongside a video showing a man and police by a set of ticket barriers. Evaluation The video in question has been online for several months so is unrelated to a widely shared video which was released by Conservative MP Robert Jenrick earlier this week. The facts The video with the caption claiming it was linked to Mr Jenrick's expose was posted on May 30. The mention of an expose is most likely a reference to a video released by Mr Jenrick on May 29 in which he confronts alleged fare evaders on the London transport system. However the video which supposedly shows a reaction to Mr Jenrick's 'expose' has been online for some time before the MP released his video. A reverse image search shows that it was uploaded by one social media user on December 19 2024, and could be even older than that. Links
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
I'm glad Robert Jenrick has joined my one-woman battle against fare-dodgers
A busy week for Robert Jenrick, who has been challenging fare evaders on the trains and Tubes this week, asking people why they appeared to have neglected to pay for their journey. I'm not surprised that the video clip of him confronting people who appeared to have forced their way through ticket barriers has been viewed more than 10m times. With his stunt – 'You're on camera, mate, you're bang to rights' – he's hit a nerve. He seemed to be in Stratford, east London, on the same day as I was; me visiting the V&A's new Storehouse museum, the shadow secretary of state for justice to discover why fare-dodging is costing Transport for London £130 million a year. If I'd known he was going to be going full vigilante, I'd have combined my visit to London's newest cultural jewel with a chance to join him in collaring the barrier-hoppers to ask why they were happy contributing to the recent 4.6 per cent rise in Tube fares. Because, like Jenrick, I don't mind calling out bad behaviour when I see it. On too many journeys on public transport, I see people – ok, men, it's always men – evading fares, barging through the barriers, or telling the bus driver that they don't have any money and are 'only going two stops'. When they're told to get off and they grudgingly open their Apple Pay, it feels like a minor victory for the whole of society. Last year, I was exiting the Tube at Victoria and felt someone press up behind me as I passed through the gate. They'd clearly done this so they didn't have to pay, and as we both cleared the gate, I asked them why they thought they were above paying for a ticket. The middle-aged man just said 'Don't want to', and walked off. When I told the gate staff what had happened, they said they weren't allowed to take any action and to leave any cases like this to revenue enforcement staff. But 'not my problem' seems to be the sum of it. Of course, I understand the risk of taking on people like this – in Jenrick's video, one evader claimed to be carrying a knife. But why do other passengers never think to politely address the people who are making their journeys more expensive? I've talked to people on buses who've evaded fares and reminded them that all the other passengers had paid, so why should they get a free ride? The response is either nothing, or an expletive. Frankly, I'm fed up with the sense of entitlement as well as the lack of action from officialdom. But I'm also furious that it falls to a 59-year-old woman to take on men who are breaking the law. I know I'm not the only woman who does this. I'm also not averse to asking people 'do they mind not listening to that without headphones?'. But please don't call us 'Karens'. We do it not to make people's lives a misery or for a sense of moral superiority, but because these fare-evaders don't seem to face much of a deterrent on any level. In the incidents I've witnessed on the railways, there isn't even a verbal rebuke from staff when passengers push through the gates, just a shrugging of the shoulders. Each train on the new Elizabeth Line, which cost almost £20bn to build, can carry 1,500 passengers – more in the rush hour crush, or after delays to the inexplicably unreliable service. By my calculations, that means, on average, eight people in your carriage won't have paid. Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, says TfL is increasing its teams of investigators and investing in new technology to stamp out fraud: the wide-access gates at every station, which open more slowly and so are a prime target for tail-gaters, could be made more difficult to barge through. Live facial recognition cameras powered by artificial intelligence would revolutionise the ability to detect and catch criminals. All of this can't come soon enough. On my Tube journey home from Stratford, I spotted half a dozen TfL revenue officers around an exit gate checking to see who had paid and questioning those who hadn't. I was pleased to see this; it was safety in numbers for the team, but also a very visible sign that you can't just push your way through because you don't fancy paying. Perhaps if there were a few more subtle and consistent reminders on public transport, not just the occasional swarm of blue-uniformed officers, it could make evaders think twice. But at the moment, it's just middle-aged women and the odd shadow secretary of state.
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
‘I was punched in the face, spat at and racially abused for challenging a Tube fare dodger'
Garthfeild Whyte has been punched, spat at and racially abused - all in the line of his work that is only getting more dangerous. Violence, aggression and anti-social behaviour have become a typical part of his job patrolling London's Tube network on the hunt for fare evaders. The 47-year-old is a Transport Support Enforcement Officer at Transport for London (TfL) and can recall several incidents where fare dodgers have lashed out after being questioned, putting his safety at risk. Mr Whyte is not alone - more than 800 reports of physical incidents were made by TfL staff over the past year. This figure balloons when verbal aggression is included, with more than 10,490 reports of work-related violence and aggression made by TfL workers in 2023/24 - a 5 per cent increase on the previous year. About half of these incidents were triggered by approaching fare evaders. Mr Whyte was grabbed by a passenger who tried to fare dodge at Tottenham Court Road earlier this month. 'He came through the gate behind one of his friends, and I tried to engage by sticking up my arm, which is a non-aggression approach,' Mr Whyte said, recalling the incident. 'He just immediately grabbed me up and tried to intimidate me, trying to prove his point to say that he's a strong man and he can handle me,' he added. Mr Whyte and his colleagues managed to de-escalate the situation and tried to take the man's details. The police were called, and the man was arrested. During a separate incident in Stratford last year, a person shouted racial abuse that left him 'trembling', and even talking about it 'brings back that trauma', he said. In another incident in May last year, Mr Whyte was again the victim of racist abuse, punched in the face and spat at by a man at Finsbury Park station who did not have a ticket. 'He was racial and was making passing remarks in regard to my sister. My sister died three years ago, so that brought up some more trauma,' Mr Whyte explained. However, he managed to get a swab of his spit and took it to the police station. They found the attackers' DNA and discovered he was also wanted for a robbery, which happened a couple of days before. Often, there is no specific reason for aggression towards station staff other than being stopped for fare evasion. 'We don't know the reason or what is triggering the aggression, it could be some psychological stuff or maybe it could be the weather, economical or private stuff at home, it could be anything,' Mr Whyte explained. 'Once you disrupt their livelihood or their day-to-day activities, you are going to be at fault,' he added. He admitted that when he first started the job almost five years ago, he used to fear approaching people in case someone was carrying a knife. 'I used to have that fear, but not anymore because you need to engage to be able to get a response, and you are trained how to respond,' he said. 'But new starters especially have that fear,' he added. Over the past year, more than 480 bladed weapons, such as a knife, have been confiscated by the British Transport Police, who work alongside Mr Whyte and his colleagues. He recalled one incident last year at Seven Sisters station, where a man was seen reaching for something, which staff assumed was a weapon. 'We approached him, and he became violent and reached for something in his bag and because we didn't know what it was, we had to physically restrain him,' he said. 'In that instance, I was really fearful for myself and my colleagues getting hurt,' he explained. Mr Whyte explained that 'getting hands-on is a last resort' and if it is not safe, he does not approach people.
