MERSEYRAIL declared war on fare dodgers last night with confirmation it will double its fines for those travelling without tickets within a month.

Those who refuse or forget to pay the full fare for their journey will be liable for a £20 fine instead of the £10 penalty which has been in place since August last year.

The Department of Transport recently gave rail companies the opportunity to increase fines from the current £10 limit and Merseyrail operator Serco/Nedrail has now decided to exercise that right.

The new £20 penalty fare will be introduced from Sunday, June 12.

Since the fine system was brought in last summer, about 9,500 have been issued by Merseyrail inspectors to fare dodgers.

Research shows that fare evaders will often go on to be people who assault staff, create disorder and commit vandalism.

Merseyrail believes that tackling fare evasion by enforcing the fines helps to address these problems.

Managing director Patrick Verwer said: "Penalty fares have helped to reduce anti-social behaviour and have improved personal security for our passengers.

"I am convinced that this increase to £20 will reduce the number of fare evaders even further. I want passengers who travel on our trains to pay for their journeys; the vast majority of our passengers are honest and they should not be subsidising the dishonest ones."

Together with the installation of electronic gates at Merseyrail's six busiest stations, the introduction of penalty fares is estimated to have reduced ticketless travel and the associated assaults and antisocial behaviour on the network by more than 50%.

Under the penalty fares scheme passengers must buy a ticket for their entire journey before boarding a train. Anyone found travelling without one is liable to be issued with not only the £20 fine but also the full fare to the passengers' destination station if continuing their journey.

Penalty fares apply to all stations on the Northern and Wirral lines with the exception of Bache, Capenhurst, Ellesmere Port, Little Sutton and Overpool.

Before fines were introduced it was estimated more than 10% of passengers on Merseyrail were travelling without a ticket but a recent survey suggested this had fallen to just 4.6%.

The money collected from the £20 fines is to be reinvested into further security measures on Merseyrail, such as increased use of security guards and additional CCTV cameras.