Inspection blitz uncovers widespread free travel pass fraud

[Mark Gleeson]

Standard policy across Europe is no barriers and fairly minimal checks on local services, combined with very heavy enforcement at random checks
long distance there is generally a member of staff onbroad

Irish Rail's gating policy does work well at busy locations and the revenue at stations where barriers have been fitted has typically gone up

The random checks at outer suburban stations are effective.

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Standard policy across Europe is no barriers and fairly minimal checks on local services, combined with very heavy enforcement at random checks
long distance there is generally a member of staff onbroad

Irish Rail's gating policy does work well at busy locations and the revenue at stations where barriers have been fitted has typically gone up

The random checks at outer suburban stations are effective.

The only problem is these 'ambushes' by RPU seem to inconvenience the ordinary commuter, why don't they arrange them when fare evasion is rife (ie. when/ where stations are unmanned or out of hours).

[Kilocharlie]

In Kildare yesterday evening. 7 of them.

Earlier this week, two RPU officers patrolled the 14:25 to Portlaoise checking tickets after every stop.

[James Howard]

Exit checks aren't really practical at a lot of rural stations due to their sometimes isolated locations and the infrequent nature of the services. The best solution for the Longford services would be to deploy a checker at random on one of the services a few times a month and combine that with the odd blitz.

I don't really see how the checks are inconvenient to regular commuters. It is just a matter of flashing your pass which takes me approximately 2 seconds. It is a lot more convenient than losing a service because the revenue on the line isn't sufficient to cover its costs.

Anyway, deploying a team to Enfield is deploying them to a place where fare evasion is present (if not rife) and as far as I know the station is always out-of-hours as it is effectively just a halt.

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by James Howard

Exit checks aren't really practical at a lot of rural stations due to their sometimes isolated locations and the infrequent nature of the services. The best solution for the Longford services would be to deploy a checker at random on one of the services a few times a month and combine that with the odd blitz.

I don't really see how the checks are inconvenient to regular commuters. It is just a matter of flashing your pass which takes me approximately 2 seconds. It is a lot more convenient than losing a service because the revenue on the line isn't sufficient to cover its costs.

Anyway, deploying a team to Enfield is deploying them to a place where fare evasion is present (if not rife) and as far as I know the station is always out-of-hours as it is effectively just a halt.

I've been incovenienced as I try to get up stairs to catch a Feeder Bus at Hazelhatch Station, the RPU block off the stairs. Up to 100 passengers would be getting off the train in the evenings, if you don't make it the Feeder bus will go off without you.

[Mark Gleeson]

Irish Rail is completely empowered to check tickets whenever they like

Bear in mind the greatest cause of delays at an inspection are

1. Passengers not having there ticket to hand, and spend ages digging around in pockets and bags

2. Passengers with no tickets clog up the process as it leaves fewer checkers to handle the queue.

Irish Rail's approach is consistent with other operators, I've never had a problem and always found the checking to be efficient and firm.

On the occasions where a passenger refuses to cooperate then the fun and gardai start

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Irish Rail is completely empowered to check tickets whenever they like

Bear in mind the greatest cause of delays at an inspection are

1. Passengers not having there ticket to hand, and spend ages digging around in pockets and bags

2. Passengers with no tickets clog up the process as it leaves fewer checkers to handle the queue.

Irish Rail's approach is consistent with other operators

In all my years commuting to and from Hazelhatch I have NEVER seen any passenger caught for travelling without a valid ticket.
I have travelled by rail extensively in Portugal, Spain, Italy and UK an I have never seen such ambush tactics employed. Tickets are checked by a courteous member of rail staff. Why do Irish Rail always have to be confrontational.