Abstract
Local public transport companies provide important mobility services to the general public. Although these services are usually subsidised, companies rely on revenues generated by ticket sales. Therefore, fare evasion (i.e., people using a transport service without paying for it) and ticket forgery (the production of an illegal ticket facsimile) have considerable influence on the companies’ economic sustainability. As existing research regarding the economic perspective is limited, this paper presents a Delphi study that investigates the phenomena with a survey of experts in public transport companies and transport associations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The findings of the survey provide insights into the overall perception and discuss relevant aspects of both fare evasion and ticket forgery, thereby not only highlighting practical implications, but also helping policy makers shape adequate policies for public transport in societies.
Highlights
Public transport companies are the backbone of urban transport networks and provide important mobility services to the general public
Based on the opinion of the experts, our research examines the overall perception of the phenomena, their development over time, passengers’ motives, measures and technologies to prevent and combat fare evasion and ticket forgery, penalties, estimated revenue losses, related legal regulations, social aspects of ticket checking procedures, the acceptance of inspections by paying passengers and whether using a transport service without paying is seen only as a trivial offence or rather as a serious delict
The best strategy to fight these offences is to intensify controls, ideally performed by ticket inspectors. This is in line with the findings of Bonfanti and Wagenknecht [3] stating that the human factor is crucial for reducing aggression and fare evasion
Summary
Public transport companies are the backbone of urban transport networks and provide important mobility services to the general public. As these services are of great importance to the vast majority of people, provincial and state governments are normally responsible for financing infrastructure networks and—at least in part—for the maintenance of the services. The use of public transport services is usually not free of charge for passengers. Tariffs are frequently subsidised, revenues generated by ticket sales are an important source of income for transport companies and make a significant contribution to keeping the system financially viable [1,2,3,4]. Due to technological advances (on the part of suppliers as well as the passengers), these phenomena seem to be developing as well [2,7]
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