ARE THE BENDY BUSES REALLY FREE BUSES?

Written by Graham Tope and published in Paddington Times on Tue 2nd Nov 2004

Over the last few weeks we have seen Mayor Livingstone hike up fares on public transport by £125million in 2005 in London.

To some this will seem fair enough, but consider this. According to the Mayor, a shocking 90,000 to 120,000 trips on buses are taken every day by people who have avoided paying for the ride. This amounts to around £40million each year that is lost by our transport system to people wanting to get something for nothing.

The Mayor also told us that around a quarter of a million people had been caught by the 150 or so Revenue Protection Inspectors, ticket checkers to you and me, in the last four and half years.

Sounds all well and good. But once we start doing some maths, the figures become a little less impressive. With 1,642 days going by since April 2000, the number of people caught dodging fares boils down to just 150 people being caught each day. With 150 ticket checkers working on the buses, this means that on average, each ticket checker catches just one person every day.

In short, you have a 600-1 chance of getting caught with out a ticket. According to William Hill, these are higher odds than Boris Johnson becoming James Bond! Another way of looking at it is that you could avoid paying a fare for over 18months before getting caught.

And when you are caught what is the severe punishment for fare dodging? A £10 fine. This could mean that on average, London's transport system could lose £590 of fare revenue per dodger because they are not paying for a ticket.

With more and more bendy buses on their way onto our streets, the chance of getting caught gets slimmer. The other day, a bus driver was telling me that as soon as the ticket checker gets on at one set of doors, the fare dodgers get off the bus at one of the other sets of doors before getting caught. And even when they are caught, some fare dodgers will then claim they have no cash and give a false name and address so the fines cannot be pursued.

The truth is that fare dodgers are no better than shoplifters.

London's creaking transport network is losing millions of pounds each year to people who are breaking the law. This failure to tackle fare-dodging hits the pockets of law-abiding commuters who pay extra fare increases to make up for those who get something for nothing. Put simply, cracking down on fare evasion would crack down on fare rises.

Mayor Livingstone and Transport for London must look at dramatically increasing the penalty charge to deter fare dodgers. This would not only make sure that the punishment fits the crime and deter would be fare dodgers from traveling without a ticket but would also get back some of the cash so that Londoners might not have to pay such high fare increases.