Pictures of people who are caught travelling without a ticket are to be pasted up on poster boards at stations in the Midlands.

Central Trains launched its “Don’t Be a Loser – Buy a Ticket" campaign on Monday 21 March 2005 to crack down on "fare cheats" passing through Birmingham's New Street and Snow Hill stations.

If passengers are found without a ticket they will be issued with an on the spot £10 penalty fare either while on the train from one of the 60 revenue protection officers or from barrier staff at the stations.

Passengers who receive a fine and fail to pay within 21 days will be taken to court and could find themselves "named and shamed" on posters at their local station and at New Street station.

Over the past few months, Central Trains have invested thousands of pounds in new equipment which makes buying a ticket even easier.

State-of-the-art Tribute ticket machines have been fitted at all stations within the West Midlands, along with fast self serve ticket machines, "leaving the passenger no excuse not to have a ticket before they board".

Ticketless travel within the West Midlands currently stands at around 6%. The aim of the campaign is to reduce this figure to under 3% over the next few months.

Posters will be placed at stations across the West Midlands informing passengers of the penalty of travelling without a ticket.

Richard Brooks, business manager for West Midlands Services, said: “This is a hard-hitting campaign to seriously reduce the number of people travelling without tickets and we are not embarrassed about naming or shaming those who persistently re-offend.

“Our paying passengers tell us that they don’t think it is fare that a small proportion of our customers are not paying and we are determined to do all we can to crackdown on this problem once and for all.”

The Penalty Fares scheme was introduced in September 1997 when around 14% of passengers were travelling around the West Midlands without tickets. It covers many stations and was recently extended to Birmingham New Street.

People taken to court for not paying their penalty fare could be fined up to £1,000 and in some cases could face a three-month custodial sentence.

Information from Central Trains