Would it actually reduce fare dodging? It would for someone like me, but then I'm the sort of person who'd pay anyway.

Here's Rick Falkvinge at TorrentFreak discussing copying fabric patterns in France a few centuries ago, where the penalty was ratcheted up all the way up to breaking on the wheel, which is a very unpleasant way to die. It made no difference to the prevalence of unauthorised copying.
https://torrentfreak.com/and-when...