London Underground ticket barriers are usually a chaotic blur of commuters tapping card readers at a furious pace to get through. But at one station passengers needn’t bother.
While it’s still called the London Underground, many tube lines start or end outside the UK capital – including Essex.
Roding Valley station in Buckhurst Hill, the Epping Forest district of Essex, sees just over 1,000 passengers a day, EssexLive reports.
And it is the least used station on the whole network – with around 0.26million passenger journeys recorded in 2022.
It is one of just twelve tube stations not to have ticket barriers on the entire network.
The Zone 4 station belongs to the Central Line which normally jam-packed with commuters who hop off at Oxford Circus, Bond Street and Bank.
So while official figures show that there are few users, the lack of ticket barriers at the station means the figure could be significantly higher.
The station opened in 1903 on what was then known as the Fairlop Loop – a line that went from Woodford to Ilford.
This loop was meant to join the Central Line in 1938 but that was halted by the Second World War.
In 1947 Roding Valley was closed and didn’t open up again until November 1948 when it joined the Central Line which it has been a part of ever since.
Fare dodging cost Transport for London (TfL) £130m in 2022-23, according to the BBC.
Evading fares can be done in a number of ways including counterfeit tickets or failing to tap in and out of ticket barriers.
TfL told the BBC its target was to bring evasion rates below 1.5 percent but that the current rate is at 3.9 percent collectively across buses, trains and trams.
Penalty fares currently are set at £80, reduced to £40 if they are paid within 21 days.
But fare evasion can lead to a fine of up to £1,000 as well as a criminal record.
TfL said that last year there were more than 18,000 offences reported by TfL revenue teams for possible prosecution.
Express.co.uk has approached TfL for comment.
