West Midlands Railway services are seeing a significant raised to its Penalty Fares and from Monday the 23rd of January will be a minimum of £100, the penalty can be reduced to £50 by paying within 21 days alongside the full price of the full single fare applicable.

The Penalty Fare is currently £20 or double the full single fare to the next station, whichever is larger. The new penalty fare has been introduced following a national consultation by the Department for Transport and will be in action right across the rail network.

Annamaria Izzard, head of revenue protection at WMR, said: “Every year around £240million of revenue nationally is lost to the railway through fare evasion, taking money away from vital improvements to the network and ultimately costing the taxpayer.

“The vast majority of our passengers already do the right thing and buy their ticket before travelling but I hope these changes will encourage more people to think twice about ticketless travel.”

West Midlands Railway is reminding passengers to purchase a valid ticket ahead of boarding a train. Tickets can be purchased online, at a station ticket office or at vending machines, customers can also buy tickets using the West Midlands Railway app.

Penalty fares could be applied to customers via the national Penalty Fare scheme if they:

• Travel without a valid ticket
• Can’t show an appropriate Railcard for a discounted ticket
• Travel in First Class with a Standard Class ticket
• Are travelling on a child ticket, but are 16 or over
• Travel beyond the destination on their ticket

To find out more about penalty fares, please visit: Penalty fares policy | West Midlands Railway