Nottingham Express Transit have confirmed that since their crackdown on fare evasion started in January almost 10,000 people have been fined. A total of 9.700 penalty fare notices have been handed out between January and August 2024 with 2,100 people also having been prosecuted through the courts.
This all amounts to an increase in those caught evading fares by a third so far in 2024. But despite that rather depressing figure, NET do believe that the numbers are falling. At the start of the year they estimated that 10% of all passengers were not paying for a ticket but that this has now fallen to between 7% and 8%.
Jo Bentley, Head of Customer Experience, said: “Before the zero tolerance campaign came in, we were giving a lot of people the benefit of the doubt and we were issuing quite a lot of verbal warnings. We were probably, in a month, issuing about 1,000 verbal warnings. Now we are really trying to stamp down we are probably issuing between 30 and 40 per month. The message is out there; if you don’t have a valid ticket to travel, then you’ll be issued with a penalty fare. In terms of detection of fare evasion that has increased, but we are starting to see the fare evasion percentage decrease.”
Whato all,
When the system first opened there were conductors on the trams. Perhaps they should be reintroduced but their wages would probably be higher then the loss through non-payment of the fares.