Fare Dodgers Archives

October 10, 2025 Fare Evasion, Public Transport, Safety & Security

Fare Evasion on Buses Contributes to $11M Deficit for Milwaukee Transit System
MCTS aims to balance enforcement and safety as fare evasion costs mount and drivers push for more authority.

The Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS), which operates public bus services throughout Milwaukee—the largest city in Wisconsin—has announced a new plan to reduce fare evasion, following the revelation of an unexpected $11 million budget deficit in June. An internal investigation found that approximately 8 million passengers board buses annually without paying. For the past...

August 22, 2025 Fare Evasion, Public Transport, Safety & Security, Ticketing

Westchester’s bus system loses $1 million a month to fare evasion
County proposes $50 civil fines as fare evasion affects 1 in 7 bus trips

Westchester County, in southeastern New York, is considering civil fines for fare evasion on its Bee-Line bus system, as officials estimate 1 in 7 of the system’s 85,000 daily rides go unpaid — totalling around 12,000 unpaid fares per day, or approximately 4.4 million annually. This widespread fare evasion costs the county about $1...

February 20, 2025 Fare Evasion, Public Transport, Safety & Security, Ticketing

Île-de-France Loses €700 Million Annually to Fare Evasion: New Measures Target 50% Reduction
Public Transport Cracks Down: Continuous Controls and 500 Agents to Combat Fare Evaders

Fare evasion in Paris and its suburbs costs the Île-de-France public transport network an estimated 700 million euros annually. To tackle this significant loss, Valérie Pécresse, President of Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), announced the launch of “continuous control” operations starting Monday, February 17, targeting bus, tramway, metro, and RER lines most affected by fare evasion....

July 7, 2023 AI Video Analytics, Fare Evasion, Public Transport, Safety & Security, Ticketing

MTA’s Pioneering Methodologies to Measure Fare Evasion
The synthesis of traditional surveys and state-of-the-art technology creates a robust blueprint for fare evasion measurement

Mearuring fare evasion in Public Transport

Midjourney image promped by AWAAIT

On May 17, the Blue-Ribbon Panel for Fare Evasion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) issued a report detailing the problem and outlining its two methods for measuring it. According to the most recent data, a concerning pattern has emerged: fare evasion rates increased significantly from pre-pandemic levels of 3 to 6% to 13.5%...

June 8, 2020 Public Transport, Ticketing

Fare inspections to resume on Toronto’s public transport
After a two-month pause during the pandemic, fare inspectors will gradually resume their normal duties this summer

TTC – short for Toronto Transit Authority, announced that fare inspectors will gradually resume activity on its premises and vehicles. During June, they will board vehicles once again to ‘remind customers to pay their fare’. They will be placed at key surface transfer points to ‘observe and educate customers and to make sure they...

March 11, 2020 Fare Evasion, Public Transport

Fare evasion rate in Santiago, Chile at 32,6% at the end of 2019
The figure is 6,1% higher than the previous quarter, but does not surpass the record 34.6% rate reached in 2016

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New figures released by the Government of Chile reveal fare evasion rates on Santiago’s public transport network are at 32.6% for the last quarter of 2019. The figure is 6.1% higher than the previous quarter, and corresponds to the period when violent protests in October 2019 led to massive acts of evasion and destruction...

February 28, 2020 Fare Evasion, Public Transport

Athens public transport furthers efforts to improve service and boost revenue
Ticket revenue is rising and system upgrades are being rolled out, although fare evasion remains high

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OASA (Athens Urban Transport Organization), the body providing most public transport services in Athens, Greece released new data revealing revenue numbers and service upgrades. Bus and trolley ticket revenues totalled €94 million in 2018. This is more than in 2017 (€82 million ) and 2016 (€87 million), though less than in 2015 (€97 million)...

February 20, 2020 Fare Evasion, Public Transport

1 in 33 passengers dodging fares on Berlin’s S-Bahn and BVG
Ticket inspectors identified 623,000 passengers travelling without a valid ticket in 2019

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According to a recent report commissioned by the German State Senate, fraud rate on the S-Bahn and on Berlin’s BVG was at an average 3% in 2019. In 2018, fraud was at 2.6% for S-Bahn, and at 3.1% in 2018 and 5% in 2017 for BVG. 1.13 billion trips were made on BVG’s subways,...

February 8, 2020 Fare Evasion

National red list for fare dodgers in Switzerland
277.000 persons were registered in the national database by August 2019

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Fare evasion remains a major focus for mass transit operators, as it causes losses worth billions of euros each year. In Switzerland, transit operators have set up a joint national register for fare evaders. The digital register is active since April 2019 and keeps a record for offences on buses, trams and trains. Swiss...

January 29, 2020 Fare Evasion

School buses fare evasion rates over 90% in Queensland, Australia
1,53 million fare dodging incidents were reported in the financial year 2018-19

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School bus drivers in Queensland, Australia are facing an increase in fare dodging incidents from teenagers that do not pay for their rides. In the financial year 2018-19, bus drivers counted 1.53 million fare evasions (double than in the previous year) causing A$25 million in lost revenue for the local transport operator Sursfide Buslines....