South Western Railway revealed this week that it had recovered £3.4 million of taxpayers’ money in the last financial year thanks to its revenue protection policies.

The figure coincides with new research from the train operator that shows more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of Brits say that those who deliberately avoid paying the correct fare are exploiting the system and it's not fair to paying customers.

Of the 153.2 million journeys that take place on South Western Railway’s network annually, around seven million are made without a valid ticket. These unpaid fares cost South Western Railway close to £40 million a year.

According to the Rail Delivery Group, this figure rises to over £240 million a year for the whole of the rail industry.

Delving deeper into consumer sentiment, the poll of 2,000 UK adults conducted by YouGov on behalf of South Western Railway revealed 68 per cent disapprove of deliberate fare evasion and say that fare dodging is a serious problem that should be penalised.

South Western Railway has identified persistent evaders and over the last year recovered more than £1 million from fraud cases. This includes an individual who owed over £49,000 for five years of dodging fares.

Peter Williams, customer and commercial director at South Western Railway said: “Most customers on our network pay the correct fare and we understand genuine mistakes happen. But there’s growing evidence of some systematically abusing the system – a criminal offence that deprives the railway of hundreds of millions of pounds each year.

“We have a responsibility to protect revenue from tickets so that money can be reinvested into delivering the best possible service.

“We’re proud of the work our revenue protection team does and the role they play in reducing fare dodging. Their efforts have helped cut ticketless travel by more than 40% since 2017.”