Fare evaders crossing the line

Merrin Jagtman | 29th June 2009

IT seems in tight economic times fare evasion is increasing and is a loss of revenue for our public transport system.

Darra resident and local public transport advocate group, RAIL Back on Track spokesman, Robert Dow, said observations and feedback confirmed that fare evasion was rampant across the Translink network.

“We have received reports of go card users touching off early at the back of buses which reduces the fares debited on the go card,” he said.

“The same behaviour has been observed at some railway stations. Passengers touching off and then re boarding for a continuation of their journey.

“In 17 months of sustained go card use by myself I have had my go card checked once by a TransLink Transit Officer (TTO) with a mobile card reader. A number of times I have been only required to show my go card as proof of ticket.

“At stations with go card gates, passengers can be seen frequently trailing go card users as they touch off. Some of these patrons may well have paper tickets and are just frustrated at the restricted egress for paper ticket holders. Others are clearly fare evading.”

A Translink spokesman said fare evasion across the TransLink network costs up to $16 million in lost revenue.

“TransLink Transit Officers (TTOs), railway police and transport officers, have issued more than 27,000 infringement notices for fare evasion on trains so far (end of April) in the last financial year,” he said.

“The most common fines were for not buying a ticket, followed by nuisance offences, then safety. TTOs are also able to issue warnings at their discretion, instead of fines, depending on the circumstances.”

The spokesman said public transport users found to be travelling without a ticket faced a $200 on-the-spot fine.

Passengers travelling on the TransLink network must:

• Clearly display the valid ticket to the transit officer with the valid date, time and zones travelled

• If requested by an authorised transit officer, supply proof of concession.