Train staff chase ticket cheats after complaints

Auckland rail passengers will have to buy tickets before boarding trains at Britomart during a two-day trial campaign against fare evaders.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority estimates that 8 per cent of passengers ride trains without paying, costing ratepayers and taxpayers about $1.5 million a year.

It says the trial is in response to complaints from paying customers who resent the freeloaders, and urges passengers travelling between 3.30pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 28, to arrive early at Britomart to pay their fares at ticket booths.

That is because the platforms will be closed off by Veolia Transport staff checking tickets before allowing anyone to board trains.

Although the trial is for only two days, the transport authority says ticket checks at Britomart will continue periodically and may spread to other stations.

Customer services general manager Mark Lambert said paying customers had told the authority that "no fare is not fair".

Authority communications manager Sharon Hunter said the 8 per cent of freeloaders were in addition to paying passengers taking eight million trips a year on Auckland trains.

Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, whose organisation shares the cost of subsidy payments with the Government for public transport operations, welcomed the trial but said he was disappointed it had become necessary.

"This is in response to rather impassioned public complaints from people who believe in rail and feel that people are rorting the system," he said.

"It's a lot of ratepayers' money, it's money that could go back into improving services."

He said trains were often too overcrowded for all fares to be collected, and he even had to argue with a guard to have his ticket clipped on one trip.

Although concerned about the inconvenience of not being able to pay on trains, he was looking forward to the rollout of an integrated electronic ticket from late next year for passengers to swipe to get through gates proposed for Britomart and other key stations.