Undercover inspectors target rail cheats

A London train company is recruiting 60 ticket inspectors who will work in plainclothes to catch commuters who persistently dodge paying fares.

The undercover inspectors will dress in office wear during morning and evening peak periods and change to casual clothes at other times of the day. They will work closely with the British Transport Police.

The crackdown on Thameslink trains is aimed principally at the "serial and long-term fare dodgers," said a company spokesman. It also forms part of a major move against unruly schoolchildren and late-night revellers who have been causing damage and upsetting other passengers.

The plainclothes squad will travel regularly on the busy through-London service, which connects Brighton with Bedford and which is losing £4million a year to "hard-core" fare dodgers. The inspectors will mingle with passengers on stations - targeting known and suspected offenders - and follow them for the length of the journey.

Other London rail operators, between them losing tens of millions of pounds a year to ticket fraud, may follow Thameslink's example.

Although plainclothes staff have been used in the past, the Thameslink move is by far the biggest use of such inspectors on a regular basis.

Mark Causebrook, director and general manager for Thameslink, said: "There is a hard core of fare dodgers who are difficult to detect by conventional means."

Thameslink has cut down fraud by frequent on-train inspections but is having trouble reducing it below the £4million-a-year level because of " professional" dodgers. Thameslink trains, which carry 120,000 passengers a day, are so crowded in peak time that inspections are virtually impossible.

Dodgers also buy a cheap ticket to gain admission to the system and then use it for a longer journey hoping to avoid detection at the other end. When they spot a uniformed inspector they move along the carriage to the next stop, where they get out and either wait for the next train or slip back along the platform and rejoin the train on the carriages which have just been inspected.

The plainclothes squad will work alongside Thameslink's legal team. Late at night, the inspectors will deal with disruptive revellers.

Connex, which operates the UK's busiest commuter routes, also plans a huge curb on ticket dodgers later this year. The company, which estimates it loses £30million a year to fraud, was forced to postpone the move after admitting there were some stations where passengers could not buy tickets.