While transit officials say fare evasion on Calgary’s LRT system hit an all-time low last year of just 1.7 per cent, the number of tickets issued by enforcement officers jumped 28 per cent to 17,000.
Last fall’s two-week study saw peace officers check 45,248 passengers for proof of payment, with 768 unable to produce a validated ticket of pass — a compliance rate of 98.3 per cent.
“That is good news in so far as that is our highest level of fare compliance on the system since we opened the CTrain system (in 1981),” said Brian Whitelaw, Calgary Transit’s longtime safety and enforcement co-ordinator.
Brian Whitelaw, Calgary Transit Public Safety and Enforcement Coordinator
“What that means, certainly from a transit perspective, is that we’re able to hold our fares in line because the integrity of the fare collection system is protected to that level,” Whitelaw said.
The evasion rate has steadily declined from 4.5 in per cent 2012 when council hiked fines from $150 to $250 to discourage freeloaders. Penalties increase as high as $750 for repeat scofflaws.
“We have very few folks in the system who find themselves in that situation,” said Whitelaw, adding fare evasion is evenly distributed across the LRT system.
Between 2009 and 2014, the fare evasion average was about 3.6 per cent. Last year, the evasion survey found 2.8-percent evasion.
Roughly 325,000 people take the CTrain every workday, making it one of the most well used systems in North America.
While the rate of evasion dropped again in 2015, Whitelaw said peace officers issued 17,000 fare-related summonses by the end of November. That’s 4,800 more tickets, or a 28 per cent increase, over the previous year.
“We attribute that to some of our changes in how we deploy our peace officers in the system,” he said.
The city lost about $1.2 million in due to fare dodgers last year but more than recouped that by collecting $1.8 million in fines.
Many evaders say they didn’t pay because they were rushed or didn’t have exact change, Whitelaw said.
