ScotRail is refusing to say how many passengers have been reported, or convicted, for fare evasion just days after the company provoked a social media storm over a warning that it was clamping down on dodgers.
Deliberately failing to pay for a journey is a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £1000. But ScotRail will not say how many passengers have been cited for evasion since the start of the campaign last week, or even in the last year. A spokesman answered, repeatedly, “that would be for the police.”
The company had Tweeted a warning that they were pursuing fare dodgers. It was illustrated by a ticket wearing a robber’s mask, urging travellers to “buy before you board”. This provoked hundreds of responses from furious customers complaining about the company’s aggressive campaign which labelled travellers as potentially dishonest, as well as their failure to provide adequate ticketing facilities.
Answering a barrage of complaints that there were insufficient ticket machines, that most did not take cash and that there were lengthy queues for tickets, ScotRail replied, “Arrive a bit earlier”.
In response @olivia_drennan asked, “Are you having a laugh? Queues for the machines at crossmyloof can stretch to 30 people in the morning. They don’t take cash (hence excluding under 18s and anyone with a debit card) and the tics take ages to process. Get it sorted Scotrail.”
Labour MSP Pauline McNeill tartly warned that ScotRail needed “to change this policy before you are ridiculed any further”.
Alison asked “how do you get the kids for £1 option on the machine?” It’s not available the company replied, but it is on the train...
What happens, @Cheryl_x inquired, with “disabled passes and no-one manning the train desk? No option to buy it on the machines”. Angus, for ScotRail, replied that those tickets were "still available on the train”.
G posted that as an over-60 with a concession card he was told at the information desk at Central Station that he shouldn’t buy a ticket from the machine as he wouldn’t get the discount. To which, Angus again, replied that “you’ll still be able to get your ticket on the train if there’s no ticket officer at your station”.
Andy Fenwick fumed, “You’re simply providing a poor service and then threatening those being short changed. Clamping down? In future, keep it clamped.”
Another passenger moaned, “It’s 2019 and yet e-tickets, which First Bus have had for ages, still isn’t available ... also trying to top up a Smartcard on the website is a shambles.”
In response to the fare-dodging clampdown ScotRail said: “Revenue protection and reducing ticketless travel have always been priorities for ScotRail.
“It’s a small minority of passengers who deliberately try to avoid paying the proper fare but it’s honest, fare-paying customers who bear the burden of lost investment on Scotland's Railway.
“We have implemented a number of measures to make it easier for customers to buy before boarding, including ScotRail smartcards, and new and upgraded self-service ticket machines across the network.”
The latest furore broke in the week that it emerged that the company admitted that it would not hit its target of stopping the dumping of human waste on rail lines by 2020.
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