Article: Station entrances closed off to fight rail fare evaders

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Station entrances closed off to fight rail fare evaders

Station entrances closed off to fight rail fare evaders
Article from: The Courier-Mail

Ursula Heger

May 08, 2009 12:00am

BRISBANE'S city railway stations will close off some entrances to paper ticket commuters later this year to crack down on fare evasion.

TransLink yesterday confirmed Fortitude Valley and South Brisbane stations, which cater to 20,000 passengers each year, would follow Central and Roma Street by restricting entrances for commuters using paper tickets.

The stations will allow only Go Card users to enter some parts of the stations, with paper ticket holders forced to enter and exit through special areas.

The move comes as TransLink recorded its highest monthly public transport usage, with more than 17.4 million trips taken in March.

A spokesman for TransLink said the move would restrict the number of areas where fare evaders could sneak through undetected.

"Further moves to separate paper ticket holders and Go Card holders exiting at the remaining CBD stations are under way as part of a move to improve the flow of customers and crack down on fare evasion," he said.

"The Go Card technology allows a passenger to touch off and exit a rail station without supervision, whereas a paper ticket needs to be checked to ensure that it is valid for use."

He said fare evasion cost Queensland taxpayers about $16 million every year.

Currently there are about 320,000 Go Cards in use on the southeast's public transport network, accounting for an estimated 30 per cent of trips.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said commuters wanted action to tackle fare evasion.

"I can understand that if you feel crowded on a peak-hour train and you feel that people around you might not be paying for that, then that is frustrating," she said.

More than 100 commuters a day were caught evading fares last month, but more than half were first-time offenders. First-time offenders are issued with a warning and their details are registered on a database.

Commuter advocacy group Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow said the move would deter some fare evaders.

But he said better fare incentives were needed for switching from paper tickets. "The problem here is a huge resistance of people wanting to stick with the paper tickets, but that is a result of the fare inequities," he said.

"This is an attempt to further the uptake of Go Cards, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing, but they will have to make them more equitable compared to paper tickets."