Ticket dodgers 'avoid paying on 900,000 rail journeys'

ScotRail is encouraging customers to buy their tickets before boarding trains

About 900,000 rail journeys are made each year in Scotland by people who deliberately avoid paying the fare, according to ScotRail.

The train operator has carried out ticket monitoring at stations.

It has started a new campaign aimed at urging customers to pay their fare before boarding.

The firm said it had also invested in ticket vending machines at 26 new sites in a bid to help customers purchase tickets in advance.

ScotRail said its recent monitoring exercise revealed that 132 people had travelled without a ticket on 10 services they examined.

Some 450 flexible journey tickets were found to be used incorrectly during four days of monitoring at Glasgow Queen Street station.

At Glasgow Central station, 19 customers declared a shorter journey than the one they had actually travelled during one morning peak-time focus on the East Kilbride and Barrhead lines.

That type of dodge is the most common form of fraudulent travel, according to the train operator.

The new Buy Before You Board campaign aims to tackle premeditated fare fraud.

Phil Campbell, ScotRail's head of revenue protection, said: "We provide a service and it's only fair that everyone pays the correct fare for the service they use."

The rail operator said its surveys showed that honest passengers were frustrated by fare dodging.

Other analysis suggested customers were fed-up with long queues in peak times at major stations.

ScotRail said it was upgrading ticket vending machines at a further 100 sites.

There are now 260 machines across the network, with 20 more to be installed by the end of the year.

Mr Campbell added: "We've invested heavily in facilities to make it much easier for our customers to buy tickets in advance.

"This means that staff on trains have more time to help customers with travel or other queries.

"Buying before boarding will result in much shorter queues to get through the gates at busy destination stations such as Glasgow Central."