IT’S A FARE COP
11 passengers fined almost £1,700 for not having tickets
MAGISTRATES handed out almost £1,700 in fines to Arriva Trains Wales passengers who failed to show a valid ticket – on just one morning last month.
After discounts for guilty pleas and two cases being dismissed for lack of evidence, £1,645 worth of fines was the total awarded by magistrates at Cardiff and the Vale Magistrates’ Court against 11 passengers in just three hours on February 24.
Arriva Trains Wales customer services director Lynne Milligan said the fines were an effective deterrent to make sure that passengers pay for their tickets and limit the company’s losses.
She said: “We have done our own estimates at revenue lost – and it varies by time of day – but it’s about 7% of journeys.
“It is hard to work out what that costs us but it will be in the millions of pounds every year.”
Most of the fines had a starting point of above £600 – with other court-ordered payments including compensation, costs and surcharges added.
But most were brought down considerably after those who had been issued them pleaded guilty.
One passenger was initially issued a fine of £617, which was dropped to £243 after his guilty plea – the journey would have cost him £3.40.
Had the full amount of the fines been awarded then £8,021 could have been raised.
The fines issued by magistrates are mostly made up of courts charges, with Arriva Trains Wales receiving only the cost of the tickets and a victim compensation charge of around £40.
Ms Milligan said that fines were supposed to act as a deterrent.
She said: “Enforcement is important because it is about deterring people who think they can get away with travelling without a valid ticket.
“People should read about fines and think ‘I’m not going to be caught out, I’m going to buy a ticket’.”
Last week a Cardiff train passenger was given a £615 fine for being unable to buy a £1.90 ticket for a four-minute journey.
Disability worker Jenny Shearman, right, wrote: “Regardless of it seeming unfair as they sell tickets on the train (not that day though of course) and you can’t exit the station at the other end without paying, it just seems vastly disproportionate. People get fined less for GBH.”
Another passenger was fined £600 when he caught a train from Taffs Well to Fairwater, Cardiff, and didn’t have a valid ticket.
Ms Milligan said people must buy a ticket at the first possible opportunity to avoid getting a fine. “It’s really important that people buy a ticket at the earliest opportunity they can – not sit passively and wait until they are asked,” she said. “That could mean buying it on our app, at a station, from a machine or by going to see a conductor when you first get on a train. “There is a conductor on every train and they are visible – so you should actively make your way to the conductor.” The customer services chief admitted there are some people who don’t have a valid ticket for totally innocent reasons – and said Arriva’s po l icy doesn’t go after them. “If someone is stopped by one of our revenue inspec- tors they follow a checklist, and if someone has made a genuine error they will let people go,” she said.
“But if the explanation isn’t innocent then you’ll get caught and you’ll have to pay a fine.”
She also warned fair dodgers to beware – it could be the person next to you who is shopping you to the authorities.
“People write to us all the time and tell us about people who are on their trains every day and haven’t got a valid ticket.”
Despite fines often topping £600, Ms Milligan wouldn’t be drawn on whether she thought the fines handed down by magistrates were fair.
She said: “The courts set the fines, al all we know is that if we are owed m money then there is a route for us to ge get a remedy and that is through the co courts.
“It’s difficult to say if it is fair or not, as it is set by the courts, but we spend a lot of money on enforcement and o on putting the opportunities in place fo for people to pay, and we want peop ple to use them.”
The penalty fare system has previo ously been criticised by Welsh Conse servatives leader Andrew RT Davies.
He said: “No reasonable person would argue that fare dodgers should not be dealt with, but those who m make a legitimate attempt to buy a ti ticket but find they are unable to sh should not be penalised.
“I have therefore written to Arriva T Trains Wales asking them to look in into this and take appropriate action to address the situation if this was t the case.
“I have also asked them to provide assurances that if no opportunity is available to passengers to purchase a ticket, they are not subsequently p penalised with penalty fare notices.”