How Southeastern Recovered 3x More Revenue by Transforming Fare Compliance with Raspberry Software.

How a tailored, data-driven revenue protection system transformed fare compliance across Southeastern’s network.

A Partnership Built on Understanding

Southeastern Trains Limited, operating across Greater London, Kent, and East Sussex, faced a growing challenge in tackling fare evasion.

When they met Raspberry Software at the RAILTEX show in London, the fit was clear: TIPS (Raspberry Software’s SaaS solution) offered both powerful functionality and the support of a responsive, UK-based development team.

Challenge

The UK rail industry loses an estimated £300 + million annually to fare evasion. Southeastern faced multiple threats to revenue, including:

• Passengers travelling without valid or correct tickets
• Deliberate fare dodging and misuse of railcards
• Split-ticketing tactics to exploit fare evasion opportunities
• False identities to avoid Penalty Fare Notice liabilities

Solution – Driven by listening

From day one, Raspberry’s approach was simple: listen first, build second. Raspberry:

• Conducted in-depth workshops to understand existing workflows and pain points.
• Used TIPS as a reference point, adapting features to meet Southeastern’s needs.
• Defined tailored process flows, automated correspondence, and real-time reporting dashboards.
• Close collaboration, supported by face-to-face sessions and detailed specifications, ensured the final system was not only fit-for-purpose but future-ready.

Implementation

Once the requirements were agreed, Raspberry enhanced the TIPS system using its configurable core platform, ensuring Southeastern’s needs were met while maintaining compatibility with wider industry standards.

Development progressed quickly, with limited customer involvement aside from Raspberry presenting completed modules to confirm the project remained on track.

Raspberry understands the challenges of change management, as staff transition from the old system to the new, and created a training program that met the needs of all levels and capabilities.

Key product enhancements since launch include:

• BI Reporting module – allows Southeastern to create insights from the rich source of data collected.

• Smartcard and TTK integration – automates ticket verification, reducing manual checks and ensuring accurate data collection.
• Offender intelligence tools – repeat offender alerts, Google Maps integration, address validation
• Passenger survey support – through Shift Activities tracking
• Multi-brand support – GDPR-compliant data segregation, enabling safe collaboration with other operators like GTR.
• Raspberry pivoting to the changing needs of Southeastern

Outcomes

• 300% increase in recovered revenue since introducing TIPS, delivering a significant boost to Southeastern’s bottom line.
• Threefold increase in Penalty Fare Notices issued, driven by a streamlined app issuing process, more accurate offender verification, and back office bulk processing case management.
• Higher staff productivity through automation of manual tasks, freeing teams to focus on complex cases and passenger engagement.
• Comprehensive repeat-offender profiles built over time, enabling more effective enforcement and prolific offender identification.
• Data Insights – Using the BI reporting module, Southeastern uncovered hidden insights, revealed trends, and pinpointed urgent opportunities in Revenue Protection that they never knew existed. 

Client Testimonial(s)

“Working with Raspberry is like having them as part of our organisation.”

“We’ve formed an excellent working relationship over the years and look forward to continuing this relationship.  Southeastern is proud to have helped shape the TIPS product into what it is today.”

“The Revenue Protection industry is constantly evolving with new legislation, government directives, and new ways offenders defraud the railway. Raspberry has consistently been ready to adapt and support us in these changes.”

Gavin Wills, Debt Recovery & Prosecutions Manager at Southeastern.    

Looking to strengthen your fare compliance strategy?

Discover how a tailored revenue protection system could work for your network.

Contact: jules.hollows@raspberrysoftware.com

“The Raspberry Teams TIPS system gave us the confidence to make the switch over from a paper based system to a “live” digital system. From the initial meeting, where they presented the product and explained how the Application and Software worked as well as how this could be implemented and used – they were impressive and they have gone on to provide great service, a very effective product and outstanding product support.

TIPS has allowed us to increase productivity. Our customers can access online payment immediately and in the Backoffice we are able to deal with queries, appeals and customer service issues in a live environment. It has given Revenue Inspectors the ability to check details quickly and deal with serial offenders effectively.
 
At Transpennine we have seen the number of UFNs/PFNs issued increase as well as a marked increase in those that are settled. TIPS has streamlined the debt recovery process for us and is assisting in driving down ticketless travel on our network.”