http://www.theprovince.com/news/bc/Rider...s+prior+ticket+checks/7026359/story.html
SkyTrain riders on Wednesday questioned a transit police plan to announce when and where they will be checking for fare evaders.
Transit police announced Tuesday they will advise riders through the various media outlets in the Greater Vancouver area when and which stations they will be checking for tickets. But some riders who do pay for their tickets panned the advance notice in the war on SkyTrain cheats.
“It is good to hear TransLink plans to crack down on fare evaders,” said Lonnie Neufeld, 55, of New Westminster. “But the proposed methodology is absolute nonsense.”
“How will giving fare evaders advance notice help in cracking down on them?” he questioned. “These people are fare evaders — they are not stupid — if they are told when and where they will be checked, does TransLink really expect them to cheat at those points in time?”
Neufeld, a real-estate appraiser, travels most work days by SkyTrain from New Westminster to downtown Vancouver.
He buys a monthly pass for $110 and said he has been asked for a ticket three times since riding public transit on a regular basis for the past two years. He feels transit police announcing the times and places they will be checking may have few results.
“How is that a crackdown?” he asked.
Ester Nielsen, 70, who was waiting at Waterfront Station for a Canada Line SkyTrain to Richmond, said something has to be done with fare cheaters. She also questioned the plan to announce in advance where there will be fare checks.
“I think it is a mistake,” she said of the plan by transit police. “If they tell people where they are going to be, everyone will buy a ticket.”
“If they show up unannounced they will get more cheaters.”
Helen Muhammed, 27, who travels to downtown Vancouver from Burnaby, also agreed that something needs to be done with fare cheaters, but questioned letting the cheats know where there will be fare checks.
“People will buy a ticket if they know they will be checked,” she said. “But that is a good thing getting people to buy their tickets.”
The transit authority estimates it lost $7.4 million to fare evaders on SkyTrain last year.
Jordan Bateman, the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said transit police should not announce where they will be.
“Do an overall blitz,” he said. “That would scare more people than announcing a specific location.”
“This plan has me scratching my head.”
District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton, who is the chair of TransLink’s mayor’s council on transportation, said he has mixed feelings about telling people ahead of time where there will be checks.
“I’m not sure it’s the way I’d go,” he said of the plan.
But he thinks informing the public ahead of time will at least get people thinking about purchasing a ticket. And even if people are caught without a ticket, Walton notes that many don’t have a driver’s licence, so collecting the fine could be difficult.
A ticket for not having a SkyTrain ticket is $173. Under the new legislation by the provincial government, TransLink will now be able to go after the fine using a collection agency if necessary, and anybody who does not pay could be refused insurance with ICBC and would not be able to renew their licence.
”Collecting the fine is a real challenge,” he said.
Transit police media liaison Anne Drennan said while they will announce where the checks will be conducted, they will have additional officers unannounced at other SkyTrain stations checking for tickets at the same time. The campaign begins Sept. 4.
“This is a ramping up of fare evasion in peak periods in September,” Drennan said.
“There will be other transit officers working at other locations,” she added. “Just because a person avoids the targeted place they shouldn’t think they will get off scot-free.”
Drennan said their aim is not to write more tickets, but make people aware they need to purchase a ticket.
“We are hearing from people all the time saying get out and make everybody pay.
“We think it is good that people are talking about this issue.
“It is just one tactic and we will analyze it to see if it is having a positive effect.”
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