Article: Poor excused don't save 22,000 fare evaders

[ozbob]

From the Sunday Mail click here!

Poor excused don't save 22,000 fare evaders

Poor excused don't save 22,000 fare evaders
Article from: The Sunday Mail (Qld)

Sarah Vogler

September 20, 2009 12:00am

ONLY one person in every 220 fare evaders caught last year could provide a legitimate excuse for not having a ticket, new figures reveal.

Translink transit officers issued more than 22,000 fines last year for passengers on the state's public transport network who had not bought a ticket, or did not have the right ticket for their journey.

Only 206 fines were waived with another 63 later voided.

But illegal riders were not short on excuses as they tried to talk their way out of a $200 fine and being ejected from a train, bus or ferry at the next stop.

Excuses that failed to get a sympathetic hearing from transit officers included:

* The machine gives too much change and I hate carrying change.

* I just went to court and thought I was going to jail, so I didn't bring a return fare.

* My mate said he'd get me a ticket and I'm getting it off him when we meet later.

* I never see you guys (officers) on the train so I didn't bother to buy a ticket.

* I have to get to court, or I've just got out of the police watchhouse.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan said fare evasion was costing the transport system up to $16 million each year.

That amount would provide more than 1200 additional bus services across the network, she said.

Ms Nolan said fare evaders should do the right thing from the outset and buy a ticket, rather than trying to come up with hard-to-believe excuses.

"If you board public transport you have to have a valid ticket," Ms Nolan said.

She said transit officers were understanding when the situation warranted it.

But everyone's time was being wasted when passengers without tickets thought they would be let off with a "ridiculous" story.

"Saying you've spent all your money at the pub is not a reason for not having a valid (public transport) ticket," Ms Nolan said.

[ozbob]

Media Release 20 September 2009

SEQ:  Fare evasion commuter view point

RAIL Back On Track (http://backontrack.org) a web based community support group for rail and public transport and an advocate for public transport users has said fare evasion is systemic on our public transport network.  It has been reported that over 22,000 fines were issued for fare evasion over the last year (1).  We would suggest this is only a small fraction of the individuals travelling without valid tickets.

Robert Dow, Spokesman for RAIL Back On Track said:

"RAIL Back On Track does not support fare evasion in any shape or form.  All citizens have a responsibility to ensure they have a valid ticket.  There are some exceptions where reverse ticketing is permitted for example when ticket machines are not serviceable and the station is not staffed, or a disabled patron is not able to use the ticket machine at an unstaffed station. Similarly if go card equipment is not operable go hard holders with credit on their go card can travel in an 'untouched' state.  In general though these go card equipment failure circumstances are not common on rail, but are more frequent on bus.  These go card equipment failures are themselves though a contributor to a loss of fare revenue."

"Observations by our members suggests that Transit Officers could be more effectively deployed on the wider network.  Often we have noted groups of TransLink officers at major gated stations supplementing station staff already checking tickets."

"The failure to drive go card uptake with innovative fares that beat paper integrated ticketing has resulted in large numbers of public transport users continuing to use paper tickets. This compounds problems for ticket checking at major stations (2)."

"Go card equipment reliability is getting better and all effort should be made to continue this improvement. All Transit Officers need the mobile go card readers to check the status of go cards on the move.  Too often it seems that go card holders are just able to show and without validation their go card during on board ticket checks."

"Community education with respect to fare evasion needs to be stepped up.  Travelling without a ticket is fraud but commuters also need to be clearly informed of the few circumstances where they may travel without a valid ticket.  One morning, I witnessed a commuter who not able to touch on with her go card due to the equipment and ticket machine not being serviceable, lacked the confidence to travel on public transport and resorted to an expensive taxi ride because of fear of a $200 fine. This is not a healthy ticketing climate."

References:

1. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26095800-3102,00.html

2. 9 Sep 2009: SEQ Go, stop, Go! http://backontrack.org/mbs/index.php?topic=2722.0

Contact:

Robert Dow
Administration
admin@backontrack.org

[p858snake]

* The machine gives too much change and I hate carrying change.

It would be nice if that was improved on, for example the AVMs giving out notes as changed, one day I had about $18 worth of silver coins for change and about only 1 gold coin in the lot, i wasn't really that impressed when it happened. (and it wasn't a attended station either so I couldn't ask them to change it =()