fare evasion

Rampant.....
They're called "frequent fare evaders" and one at least has been caught and fined 210 times in three years.

But of the seven million or more fare-dodging trips on Sydney's public transport system, few of those who get busted bother to pay the fine, a new report has found.

The NSW Auditor General's report into fare evasion on public transport estimated that 5.3 million of the 230 million annual passenger journeys on the city's trains were undertaken by people who did not pay the proper fare.

On buses, the figure was two million trips by fare evaders a year.

The figures, claim transport authorities, suggest one in every 43 train passengers is a fare evader contributing to an overall revenue loss of about $12 million per year.

Bus passengers are less likely to evade fares, with only one in every 148 either not buying a ticket or paying an incorrect fare for the distance they travel.

Sydney Ferries was unable to provide a reliable figure of fare evasion to the Auditor General.

A report in 2000 estimated RailCorp's fare evasion problem was twice as bad as it is now.

The latest report also shows that only one in every four people caught evading fares bothers to pay the fine within 12 months.

There were about 2,700 "frequent fare evaders" who were caught riding trains without tickets more than 10 times in three years. Between them they had accumulated more than $6 million in fines, but few had bothered to pay them.

One of these people had been fined 210 times for fare evasion on trains over three years, the report said.

The Auditor General said transport agencies "have improved revenue protection policy and strategic planning, including performance measures" since its last report in 2000.

However, the report suggested transport agencies "develop alternative ways of dealing with repeat offenders and non-payment of fines by frequent fare evaders."


Here is hoping that ERG can do something about it....