In figures released on Friday, 15th July, by Northern Trains, secondary schools in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, and Merseyside feature in the ‘Top 5′ schools for students caught fare evading.

Northern is now working with the schools highlighted in the list to urge parents to buy the heavily discounted (up to 75% off) Educational Season Tickets when schools return in September instead of giving their child money for the fare – which some students decide to pocket and take the risk of travelling without a ticket.

The top five schools for student fare evaders are:

• Rainhill High School in Merseyside;
• Honley High School in Holme Valley, West Yorkshire;
• Wilmslow High School in Cheshire;
• Turton School in Bolton, Greater Manchester;
• Wade Deacon High School in Widnes, Cheshire.

Those are just the top five, but many fare evasion incidents took place when students travelled relatively short distances between rural and suburban stations which are not barrier-controlled.

Because of the high number of students on board trains and the limited journey time, conductors cannot always carry out a full ticket inspection. Northern is now deploying revenue protection teams to undertake random ticket checks to tackle the problem.

For more information about educational season tickets, and to purchase one for the new academic year in September, please visit the Northern website: www.northernrailway.co.uk/tickets/educational-season

Examples of the huge savings available, based on a child’s return fare being used on the 195 days that schools are open per year, include:

Commenting on their decision to name the ‘Top 5′ schools, Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said:

“Everyone has a responsibility to buy a ticket before they travel. Unfortunately, some students think that rule doesn’t apply to them – and routinely fare evade on our services.

“It’s important they know that fare evading is a criminal act and in the future, they could end up with a criminal record for the sake of paying the, heavily discounted, student fare.

“With the end of the school year almost upon us, we are urging parents from September not to give their child money with the hope they will buy a ticket, but to save money by ensuring their child has a ticket by buying it for a cheaper rate in advance.”

Earlier this year, Northern announced they had recovered over £2m from fare dodgers.