A couple of weeks ago I caught a Western Line train from Britomart to Morningside during the PM peak. It didn’t seem to be an unusually busy train – with a few standees past Newmarket but definitely not ‘crush loaded’. Rather surprisingly, not a single ticket collector even entered our carriage until we had reached Mt Eden station, and the clippie only just reached me seconds before I got off the train at Morningside. That surprised me quite a bit, and it’s not particularly healthy for the financial sustainability of the rail network if such situations are common.
I often hear from others that travellers on the Eastern Line between Orakei and Britomart are likely to get their trips for free as often as not. Busy trains and our 1950s ticketing system on the rail network don’t seem to combine too well: it seems that either we end up paying an extraordinarily large number of staff to operate the rail system or we miss out on a mass of revenue through fare evasion. In Auckland we have the worst of both worlds.
Theoretically, the HOP card should help this situation quite a lot, once it is finally implemented on the rail network (November this year is my understanding of the rollout date). With the HOP card we will do away with the archaic concept of buying tickets off train attendants on board, instead people will generally tag on and tag off at station posts: or at Newmarket and Britomart they will pass through fare gates like we see in so many overseas rail systems. There will be ticketing machines installed at every station – with most (if not all) machines accepting both cash and EFTPOS. I imagine that you’ll be able to both purchase single ride tickets and top up your HOP card at the machines. For people travelling to or from Newmarket or Britomart, fare evasion will become nigh on impossible (short of jumping the gates). If you didn’t tag on at your boarding station, then chances are you’ll be charged a penalty fare when exiting the system at either of those two stations.
Where things get really interesting is the situation of people who travel between two stations, neither or which is Newmarket and Britomart. Say I live near Kingsland station and work near Grafton station – I would never have to pass through a fare gate and therefore theoretically it would be fairly easy for me to avoid tagging on and off, and therefore getting my trip for free. Unless adequate steps are taken to fix this issue, it seems to me that this new type of fare evasion could become extremely widespread – as it wouldn’t be the ‘luck’ situation that most often happens now, when the clippie simply doesn’t see you or when the train is under-staffed.
My understanding is that hand-held machines have been developed which enable staff to scan people’s HOP cards and check whether they’ve tagged on or not. So these people could pass through the trains checking HOP cards to make sure that everyone has tagged on and to ensure that people travelling between two stations without fare gates can’t avoid paying for their trip. However, there’s an inevitable catch here too: how many people do we really want going up and down trains checking that everyone’s tagged on? Probably not too many, otherwise we won’t have made much of a cost saving in rail operations from the implementation of the HOP card.
If the chances of getting caught without tagging on are fairly low, what we probably need to make sure is that the penalty for not tagging on becomes quite significant. In most overseas public transport systems there are heaps of signs mentioning quite hefty fines for people travelling without paying the correct fare – the threat of such a big fine encourages people to not take the gamble. One would imagine that something similar would be a good idea in Auckland – although my understanding is that our current legal framework means that people who evade fares can only be asked to leave the bus or train, rather than be slapped with a hefty fine.
Until the legal framework on this matter is changed, it seems highly likely that people travelling between two ungated stations will take the chance and not tag on. That’s likely to mean much more lost revenue, the need for much higher subsidies, the under-counting of rail patronage and many other problems. One hopes that Auckland Transport are aware of this issue.
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I think the answer is to gate as many stations as possible, including the likes of new lynn, Henderson, manukau etc, and to pair this with customer service staff on board and at stations to help people buy a ticket and assist them when there are the inevitable problems.
Melbourne has the ‘honesty and inspection’ system and it isn’t very effective, much like any ‘tough on crime’ policy. It is fine for the generally honest and well paid 9-5ers who commute to downtown, but arguably they are the least worry.
The problem is at interpeak, evenings and weekends when a little over 50% of rail trips go nowhere near the CBD and never have a physical fare barrier.
A major unintended consequence of such a ticketing model is that it millitant-izes the interaction between passenger and the rail system. Without clippies you hardly ever a human face to the system, but when you do they are gangs of trenchcoat wearing stooges who prevent you from leaving the train as they interrogate you about where you are going and demand to see your tickets and ID. They don’t care about problems or peculiar situations, and as their job is a constant battle against a public who hate them they exercise no discretion and are extremely curt and forcefull. I would say ticket inspectors are the most universally despised people in Melbourne, yet they are the foremost face of public transport. The huge fines and penalties really only sting normal people caught out for petty reasons, the chronic fare evaders simply run away or ignore the fines they get in the mail.
Josh – I assumed all the rail stations will be fitted with electronic gates that open only when you swipe your HOP card, but, Im guessing from your post that my assumption is wrong? That’s at least how the Thales system works on Amsterdam’s metro, which I assumed would be transferred to Auckland.
No, unfortunately that would be too expensive. Wherever you have a gate you need a staff member to enable the gate to be opened should something go wrong – plus of course the capital expenditure.
Most stations will have tag posts similar to what happens with the London DLR.
Ahh but that’s not what happens here – almost none of the metro stops are manned at all. They do have an intercom and an emergency exit that you can open by pushing a buzzer but that’s it – basically the stations are monitored remotely by CCTV camera. It can’t be that expensive! Compared to annual fare evasion costs anyway!
AS long as staff can quickly scan HOP on board the train, it should provide a big disincentive for people to not steal a ride.
Agree that the fine for deliberately fare evading should be hefty.
They prob need to phase out cash payments on trains too. Or at least make them much more expensive than HOP
Agree. People get scanned by speed cameras, in buslanes etc all the time, fined, and it incentivises correct behaviour. Why should this be any different. We all end up paying for the fare-dodgers in the end.
Switzerland and Germany both work on an honesty system that’s backed up with fines that start at 80 for the first offence, 150 for the second and 300 for the third offence (details are recorded each time you’re caught). Considering a pass for the whole year in a city like Zurich costs say 600CHF it’s really not worth bothing not to pay because you only need to be caught a couple of times to end up paying the same amount. I would say the system is very effective as I rarely saw people being taken off the tram/train/bus etc for not paying.
I’m glad they’re putting gates in at Britomart and Newmarket. I originally heard they were, but then the other day I saw HOP tag in/out posts had been installed down on the platform, so I assumed they’d decided not to use gates. I guess eventually they’ll roll-out gates to other busier stations (Manukau/Papakura/Waitakere/etc) as it becomes necessary. Though where they’d position gates at Papakura, I have no idea!
I wonder if it will still be possible to pay cash on the train?
Isn’t the legal workaround to give people the “option” of paying their hop fare on the train, with a surcharge of $50, or whatever the penalty is?
My understanding is that only Britomart and Newmarket will get gates, Manukau has apparantly been designed that they could potentially be added at a later stage but all other stations, including New Lynn will have tag posts only so would require modification to allow for gates to be installed.
Cam – my understanding is that there would be no onboard sales as you will be able to buy a cash ticket on the platform, on of the advantages of that is staff will be safer as some have been robbed in the past (mainly at night)
Matt I think you are right, come to think of it. Wonder what happens if someone gets on the train with no ticket or Hop card then? I agree with admin – fare evasion could be a real problem with the intermediate stations, especially if staff are cut back post Hop implementation…
At this stage they could only be kicked off, in the future once law changes go through they could be fined. As you only need to make sure at least one tag happens, I could see one option being at am peak times to just have one person at each station watching to make sure people tag on/buy tickets. Off peak this could just be done by the train manager.
Apparently the justification for only gating Newmarket and Britomart is that about 80% of rail passengers pass through there…
As Josh says, I wouldn’t be surprised if it led to a situation where students and other particularly price sensitive people deliberately avoid tagging off at those stations and instead get off at others (e.g., Parnell) that are fairly close to where they need to go and free 🙂
I would think that if the level crossing gates are anything to go by, and with NZ’s safety laws being what they are, all the ticket gates will come with emergency gates alongside that can be freely opened anyway!
Seriously though, KR have specified in the EMU tender that each carriage is to be fitted with accurate passenger counting equipment, so at least we’ll have accurate passenger counts that can be compared to tag on/off counts, so we’ll know exactly what the evasion level is, and where it occurs the most, so it should be fairly straight forward to combat.
I can’t see the fine thing happening. In NZ private companies have no statutory right to fine anyone, otherwise you end up using the police and courts to enforce private company revenues, which is something I hope never happens in NZ.
Yes the gated stations will have a manual swing gate that can be passed (useful for people in wheelchairs etc) but that will be manned so the person would have to show their ticket/tag off to someone to confirm they have paid. You are right about the passenger counts so hopefully it is something that works well and can be followed up on.
On the issue of fines, aparantly the NZTA is working on this right now. I assume that if it goes through it will be something along the lines of AT being able to delegate some authority to agents working for them.
The solution to this may be to have these officers as council employees, but their wages and costs paid for as part of the rail contract. Legislation will be needed to give them the powers they need – see below.
One way of dealing with things is to give people a first warning and then slap the hefty fine the second time. I had the misfortune have an inspector on my very first train ride in Brisbane – I was with a paying passenger, but the card-selling booth had been closed and I was travelling without one. They took my details, and told me the consequences if I was caught again. Unfortunately, the next time they saw me my card had been having issues, but since the card was literally brand new, they gave me a pass that time as well. Fines on public transport are relatively common in Brisbane, and especially so on Melbourne’s hop-on hop-off tram system.
This means giving officers the power to detain people until their identities can be verified, and giving them the power to detain and fine people who have left vehicles, or who are on a station without tagging on or off. Both are necessary for an effective system.
Gated stations need staff to monitor them, but busier stations should be staffed IMHO anyway so that’s no issue.
In Melbourne the ticket inspectors are ‘authorized officers’ who have the right to ask for you tickets and details, and of you decline the have the power to detain you until the police arrive. Auckland will need something similar.
I certainly think New Lynn, Manukau and Panmure should be candidates for gating when they become major interchanges between buses and trains following integrated ticketing. Maybe Henderson as well.
My solutions are:
* Keep the train manager (but not any conductors) that can check as many tickets as possible.
* Have CCTV cameras on all platforms and if operators notice someone that does not tag or use the ticket machine then they can radio the description of the person and what car they boarded to the TM.
* I also agree that as many stations as possible should be gated and stations with very low patronage (e.g Te Mahia, Westfield, Waitakere) closed.
* Turn the parking / bus lane officers into an Auckland transport police that can board trains and conduct ticket checks.
@Pickle, tagging on/off can be quite discreet, so it won’t be possible to know who is or isn’t, not to mention the mere act of holding any old card as you pass by, would fool any casual observer anyway.
What I want to know is, what system of payment will be available for people without HOP cards, i.e., one-off or casual users? I assume each station will have a ticket machine that issues a paper ticket?
From memory Thales said the machines would accept cash, eftpos and credit card to purchase a manual ticket or top up your existing Hop card. Yes each station will have at least one ticket machine, those with side platforms will have have two, one on each side.
I think unless gates are put on more than just those two stations (Manukau, New Lynn and Henderson would appear to be no brainers) then there will be a lot of fare evasion.
I fully agree with Cam. Fare gates have to be installed on all stations and roller door-like security gates installed so that stations can be closed off after hours like is done overseas (Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, China, Japan for example). In Japan, an increasing number of stations now have unmanned ticket gates and use intercoms and CCTV to sort out those whose tickets / cards won’t let them through the gate. Having a fare adjustment machines adjacent to the gates on the platform side, fixes many problems before a traveller needs to use the intercom system to contact railways staff. At each of AKL’s stations, one of the automated fare gates should be made wide enough to allow a wheelchair or people with a suitcase on wheels etc through (as is the case in stations in the aforementioned countries). A manual swing gate as mentioned in an earlier post would not be practical at all I feel.
Obviously AT aren’t convinced that New Lynn needs gating – which it desperately does. They’ve started installing card readers at the bottom of the elevators/stairs. Short sighted decision that I suspect they’ll come to rue but one that is entirely consistent with some earlier half thought through decisions (Newmarket West, etc). Pity.