‘Flipping salmon’ hits Oyster card passengers on the Tube

06 November 2009

By Mike Brooke

LONDONERS are ‘salmon flipping’ on the Underground to dodge fares, a shock survey claims this morning.

Researchers reckon more than a million of us have ridden the Tube without coughing up the fare at some time in the past two years.

Fare evasion has almost doubled in the last 12 months alone, rising by 98 per cent, according to the poll by G4S, a security company accredited by British Transport Police.

Some 748,000 passengers questioned came clean about fare-dodging, estimated at £3 million in lost revenue.

Researchers identified a phenomenon for fare dodging termed ‘salmon flipping’ with the advent of the Oyster pre-pay card.

A perpetrator pretends to put their Oyster card over the magnetic reader at the barrier while standing just in front of their mark or ‘fish’ (the salmon).

The passenger behind assumes the perpetrator has paid and puts their Oyster card over the reader. That opens the barrier and the dodger slips through, having ‘flipped’ or ripped off an honest commuter behind.