Article: Fines up as public transport fare evaders have their journeys cut short

[ozbob]

From the Herald Sun click here!

Fines up as public transport fare evaders have their journeys cut short

Fines up as public transport fare evaders have their journeys cut short

    by: Greg Thom
    From: Herald Sun
    February 25, 2012 12:00AM

INNER-CITY residents are Melbourne's biggest public-transport fare evaders.

More than 3100 people living within postcode 3000 were fined by ticket inspectors last year.

They were followed by commuters from Werribee, St Albans, St Kilda and Reservoir as the top contributors to Victoria's $80 million-a-year fare-evasion bill.

The figures come as a Baillieu Government crackdown on fare evaders has brought a drop in the number of passengers trying to travel for free.

Yet-to-be released official figures, seen by the Herald Sun, reveal fare evasion fell 1.6 percentage points in the six months to October.

But the drop from 13.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent was balanced by the number of fines issued for the year - up 20,000 to 132,000.

After pressure from Transport Minister Terry Mulder for transport operators to check more tickets:

FARE evasion on trains fell from 9.8 per cent to 8.5 per cent.

THE number of bus commuters not paying dropped 1.6 percentage points to 7.6 per cent.

FREE riders on trams, the biggest problem, dipped 1.9 percentage points to 18.4 per cent.

The results come as authorities prepare to toughen up fare-evasion advertising to focus on the consequences of being caught.

Mr Mulder said one in nine commuters travelled without a ticket, draining enough money out of government coffers to buy two X'Trapolis trains, six state-of-the-art trams and 28 low-floor airconditioned buses.

"We need every cent available to go into improvements across the network," he said.

The fine for travelling without a valid ticket is $180 for adults and $61 for those under 18.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said any drop in fare evasion was welcome. But he said the introduction of the controversial myki ticketing system could make matters worse.

Shadow transport spokeswoman Fiona Richardson ridiculed the government's get-tough approach to fare evasion.

"Instead of pretending to be the Rambo of fine collecting, the Liberal Minister should reconsider his decision to slug commuters with the largest one-off ticket price increase in nearly a decade," she said.

[#Metro]

I'm not surprised that no-one pays on the tram - shocking system.
Many days I had great difficulty pushing past packed people to get to the ticket machine inside.