To get its message about the penalties for travelling without a ticket to as many people as possible, train operator Northern has extended its campaign to millions of television viewers with an appearance on BBC’s The One Show.

The feature was timed to coincide with the first anniversary of an increase in penalty fares from £20 to £100. Appearing during the programme were Northern’s revenue officers at Leeds station in West Yorkshire.

Also during the programme was a look at the efforts made by Northern’s digital fraud investigations team to tackle fraudulent activity online.

The episode can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer, and can also be viewed by clicking here. The segment starts about 2 minutes from the beginning of the programme.

Last week, Northern also announced that in the first year since the fine was increased to £100, it had issued 20% fewer penalty fares.

Also in the 11 months from 23 January when the penalty was increased to 23 December 2023, it issued 41,234 penalty fares compared with 52,394 penalty fares it issued during the same period the previous year.

To help passengers avoid incurring penalty fares, Northern has invested in a larger digital ticket network than any other train operator in the country. It is now even easier to purchase a ticket via Northern’s app, website, or one of its over 600 ticket machines.

Mark Powles, commercial and customer director at Northern, said: “We have taken a multi-faceted approach to the issue of fare evasion in recent years, deploying revenue protection teams to known hotspots; introducing new technology to help expedite ticket checks at stations and on-board our trains; and clamping down on cases of digital fraud.

“Working with the BBC to highlight that activity to millions of their viewers is another way we can reiterate our message that it’s vital to ‘buy before you board’.”