In the wake of figures released yesterday by the Labour Group on the GLA showing that fare evasion on London Underground has rocketed by over 200%, tube union RMT revealed today that, as well as closing ticket offices, LU has reduced revenue inspectors by more than a third with more cuts to come.

As well as calling for a reversal of the ticket office closures, RMT today issued a new call to the Mayor and London Underground to halt this sharp decline in the amount of Revenue Control Inspectors (RCI'S)  on the Tube, staff who are responsible for the detection of fraud, the issuing of penalty notices, prosecutions and the investigation of fraud.

In the last 8 years there has been a freeze on recruitment of RCI's and the number has gone down from the 270 in the department to only now 175 with projections that another 20% will be retiring in the next few years.

RCI’s not only collect money for the company by issuing penalty notices and raising fines from prosecutions, they are an active deterrent as having visual ticket checks, and on board train checks, deters people from fare evading in the first place. They also actively assist in emergency’s and crowd control and aid the movement of the travelling public in these days of massive overcrowding across the tube network. They are a key part of the “eyes and ears” on the system at this time of heightened security alert.

RMT General Secretary  Mick Cash said:

"It is no co-incidence that as the number of LUL Inspectors has sharply declined the amount of fraud has sharply increased and is now costing London Underground nearly £70 million a year, an increase of over 200%."

“RMT calls on the Mayor to conduct  an immediate investigation into how LUL have allowed this deterioration to such a low level of inspectors to occur and to implement a full recruitment campaign to bring the numbers back up to the levels needed to tackle travel fraud and ultimately save London millions of pounds that are desperately needed to expand tube services.”