KEY POINTS:
Auckland rail passengers running late for their trains may soon not be able to dash on board at the last minute before fumbling for loose change for ticket collectors.
The Auckland Regional Transport Authority is considering installing barriers at Britomart and several other stations, so passengers will have to buy their tickets before boarding trains.
That is to combat fare evasion and may be introduced as a short-term measure even before the introduction of integrated public transport tickets in 2010, for which permanent turnstiles are being considered for Britomart and other high-volume stations such as Newmarket and Henderson.
As rail patronage continues to soar towards more than 8 million trips a year, Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee has raised concern about revenue losses because of difficulties collecting tickets on crowded trains.
"One of the burdens of success is overcrowding, which means it is difficult to collect all tickets or even to count passengers," he told a council finance committee meeting.
A passenger survey in October put the "leakage" rate from missed train fares at 6.8 per cent.
But that is down from an average of 7.3 per cent in May, and the reduction coincides with the introduction of more on-board ticket collectors.
Veolia Transport authority customer services chief Mark Lambert told the meeting the extra staff were put on to the trains about six weeks ago to collect tickets at peak times.
As well as that measure, and the possibility of station barriers, he said the authority was also considering seeking legislation to enable public transport operators to fine passengers for fare evasion.
"Operators have no power to fine people on trains or even buses," he said.
But despite Mr Lee's concern about revenue losses to the transport authority, which receives hefty subsidies from the regional council and Government to run public transport contracts, Mr Lee did not support such a punitive approach.
"I think we really need to encourage people to pay rather than just penalise them," he said.
"Rather than spend a lot of time lobbying politicians to legislate, we should incentivise Veolia to collect tickets and apply social or peer pressure such as messages on electronic display panels."
Mr Lambert acknowledged it was convenient for passengers to be able to pay their fares on board trains, especially if they were running late, but said they would just have to allow a little more time to buy tickets beforehand.
Britomart has booths in its entry hall for better-organised passengers to buy tickets before boarding but is unlike many similar overseas stations in not having barriers to bar access to platforms for those yet to pay.
Although the authority still expects to retain free access to trains at many smaller stations, it was already proposing electronically activated turnstiles at Britomart and other high-volume sites as part of its roll-out of integrated "smart-card" tickets across all types of public transport in 2010.
Mr Lambert said temporary barriers were now being considered for introduction before then.
