Don't pay rail fines, says Ken Livingstone (who travelled without a ticket)

KEN LIVINGSTONE, who once led a crusade against fare dodgers, has called on ticket cheats to refuse to pay fines after being let off a £20 penalty.

In a rant about "rip-off" charges, the former London mayor who spearheaded a "zero tolerance" campaign against passengers travelling without a valid ticket, said people were being victimised to boost train firms' coffers.

His criticism comes after he failed to pay a £7.50 single fare from Paddington to Slough but escaped the automatic fine for the offence after appealing to First Great Western platform staff.

He said he had not been trying to dodge paying and insisted he was the victim of the train company's "disgraceful record" of making its ticketing system deliberately difficult for passengers to use.

He said he had planned to buy a ticket before boarding but didn't have time because Tube service delays meant he arrived at Paddington two minutes before his train departed.

As the train was crowded the ticket inspector hadn't reached his carriage by the time he arrived in Slough so he went to the barrier and told staff he needed to buy a ticket.

In a letter to the Daily Mail he said: "No passenger who has been victimised by First Great Western should pay their £20 rip-off.

"The rail operator, First Great Western, has a disgraceful record of making its ticketing service difficult for passengers in order to maximise its income from fines.

"Five years ago I offered the company enough money to install new ticket barriers that would allow their system to be compatible with London's Oyster card system.

"First Great Western refused to do this because it would dramatically reduce income from their £20 penalty charge regime."

As mayor, Mr Livingstone said he would show no mercy to fare dodgers but the 63-year-old today denied double-standards. "While I was mayor we pursued people who dodged paying their fare but tried to avoid fining people who had made a genuine mistake," he added.

A spokesman for First Great Western said it was confused by Mr Livingstone's criticisms. "We don't know where Mr Livingstone is coming from," he said. "We are sure that Mr Livingstone will agree with us that it's in the interests of the travelling public, and the taxpayers who help fund our railways, that passengers buy a ticket before they travel and that rail operators have systems in place to prevent and penalise fare evasion."

During Mr Livingstone's mayoral term there were a number of complaints from passengers who had been fined for fare-dodging.

In one case Rachel McKenzie, a secretary of a London archbishop, was taken to court for mistakenly falling 20p short on a bendy bus. She was unaware that she had insufficient funds on her pass and when a ticket inspector did a spot check, she discovered she had just 70p on it - rather than the 90p then needed for the journey.

Her case echoed that of University of East London student Ashley Williams, 20, who was given a criminal record for travelling one stop on a bus without a valid ticket.

Fare dodgers are believed to cost the travel industry £210 million a year in lost revenue on London commuter routes. London Underground loses £25 million.

A spokesman for the Association of Train Operating Companies said: "The rules are simple. You are required to have a ticket for the journey you are making. If you do not then you are liable to pay a penalty.

"Having said that, people manning the ticket barrier, as in Mr Livingstone's case, take the appropriate response if they believe the mistake is genuine."