On social fares, as on many other socioeconomic issues, it is useful for Americans to see how things work in countries with high income compression and low inequality under the aegis of center-left governments. city bankers) because its both an easy PR win, AND a lovely big reminder to potential casuals not to try it themselves., And there you go. I read the Vox article and I have to say, I told you so! And in general is entirely counterproductive. That is what happens in the UK where taxes are high and user-charges are high (and as it happens with a system run on econocratic lines, the service is poorer; a trifecta merde sandwich). Having felt very positive about my initial interaction with the person who took my initial phone call, I immediately booked a consultation the next day., I arrived early and was greeted with smiles and a lot of reassurance. In lieu of treating it as a big intra-urban culture war, I am going to talk about best practices from the perspective of limiting revenue loss to a minimum. E.g. | In Zurich, its 20 trips; ZVV does whatever it can to discourage people from buying single tickets. All sorts use the Paris Metro and even with its monthly card, is more expensive than either of those cities. Probably not, in that I dont think these French companies that operate in other countries bring their bad habits back home (eg. Solano Verde Water District. The greater sprawl is mostly because Tokyo is the larger capital of the larger country, with more than triple the population of Paris in terms of metro area. It caused continuous scale back of services but all see it as a natural result of motorization and expansion of highway into rural area, in addition to aging and reducing population in rural area, although even the Japanese COmmunist Party is support of the union against privatization failed to imagine the scale of effect its causing right now in their PR material at the time. To add in, one more point for passes is that many operators have a special program for organizations buying them in bulk (in other words, employers can buy passes for their employees at a discount (sometimes negociated, sometimes just depending on the number of passes bought). What fare evasion offences could I be prosecuted for? It is taking all the land area of Ile de France and ignoring that huge parts of it are either farmland (eg. See In re 3M Bair Hugger Litigation, 924 N.W.2d 16, 24 (Minn. App. Then they use it for specific services, and get the data. France..tampe..Paris68 .2% Merde! R.H August (2018), I would definitely recommend BSB Solicitors. Also, one of the 5 key points of the Williams review into their rail system: a new commercial model: Williams argues the current franchising model has had its day and is holding the sector back, stifling collaboration, preventing the railway from operating as a cohesive network and encouraging train operators to prioritise narrow commercial interest over passengers. Thats your kind of economic efficiency. Honestly, we are just. Menu and widgets Question is not whether, its by how much. Your argument against which kind of trips that are induced by marginal price costs of 0, just makes no sense. Or better still, a Hong Konger or Singaporean who moved to either London or Paris. The American moral panic about fare evasion regrettably goes far beyond New York. Ill try and post some of the tweets John Bull made about fare evasion when talking to Second Avenue Subways. In New York City, a spate of attention has come recently to policing Americas largest transit system. Boston, too, has its moral panic about fare evasion, in the form of campaigns like the Keolis Ring of Steel on commuter rail or Fare is Fair. The governor is proposing to spend more on fare enforcement than the MTA can ever hope to extract. it seems it's a RA1889 prosecution ie Fraudulent use of a Freedom pass with the intent to avoid payment of the correct fare. In both cities, there are further discounts for annual tickets. Ill admit my attitude is very conditioned by direct experience. But speaking of this year begins the process of contracting out some RER lines to private management, seemingly driven by right-winger Valerie Pecresse. I guess it helps that many German cities do have tram systems where it is impossible to build these barriers common elsewhere without making people cross the tracks instead. ts not about maximising milk, its about minimising potential moo., And thats ALSO why youll see TfL/National Rail come down HEAVILY in the courts on anyone with real money who evades (e.g. And you really have no excuse for not understanding this as I explained it all, here: Solicitors If subsidized transit leads to people moving further out and leading more car oriented lives, it could even increase transportation costs, as people saved money on housing by moving to a further out area, but end up needing a car for many non-commute trips. Trains and trams are also PoP. While I agree with pretty much everything in this post, I think encouraging monthly passes is a mistake. Theres a moralistic discourse in the United States about fare evasion on public transport that makes it about every issue other than public transport or fares. Its because the software can only remember so many trips, right? It takes tourists and business travellers to Gatwick and Luton airports. Or visit an exhibition, see a show, a sporting event etc. This really an area where the West should take lessons from Asia (though far integration, which is lacking in some Asian countries should of course still be encouraged). They immediately made me feel at ease and left no stone unturned in order to achieve a successful conclusion to mycase. Yeah, this makes sense. Or his father Lord, Baron Rees-Mogg? The flat fare is not really applicable to American cities, except possibly the Bay Area on BART. 2) Crime prevention costs 2) BART has had teen-gang problems, where a dozen kids hop the fare gates, rob/assault the passengers, and leave en-mass at the next stop over the gates before any law enforcement appears. Singapore has no season passes at all. In both Paris and Stockholm, the monthly pass is flat regionwide, an intentional program of subsidizing regular riders in the suburbs, which are on average poorer than the city. But railways, especially ones that have to cope with a giant network, hardly ever run at a profit so all it really means is a horrible choice between running fewer services, increasing fares (on routes with lower traffic than the ones chosen by the commercial entities; yeah that will work but of course it will simply force these horribly inefficient lines to close) or other kinds of cuts, slash & burn etc. How did you come up with M16s?? One could envision that stationing 1 officer / entry watching for fare evasion should bring that fare evasion down to nearly 0 regardless of types of gates, as well as put a significant dent at crime since anyone chased out of the system can quickly be apprehended. The advice I received was always well thought through and was communicated promptly at every point. The travelling public in the East seems a lot more happy with their experience than the travelling public you refer to in the West. Stuff you dont have time for during the working week etc. I dont know if the employer paid for the rest (or whatever the discounted price was). And thats before we get to lack of light-rail. London has monthly / yearly travelcards, but not on the capping system you have to pre-purchase them and theyre valid for the month / year. Fares are integrated between buses and trains (which is more than I can say for, say, London), and theres a schedule for fare by distance. This is true for all of the major world cities and there encouraging efficiency is vital. Im going to argue that imposing middle class bourgeois standards of behavior on public transit systems Is very important if you want them to exist and for more people to use them. The dissatisfaction with Southern was legendary. Privatisation is expensive, uncoordinated and dysfunctional, but the trains are nicer and come more often. (Both also have the worst inequality amongst the developed world so they need to cater to the low-SES workers.) The most urbanised zone is Paris + Petite Couronne: 6,695,233 (2011) on 761km2 = 8,786/km2. Its a valid debate to have and a valid stance to have. Based on a five-day work week, the average month has between 22 and 23 work days. Passport-size photos, applications, visiting the ticket office. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns. Its technically still a crime in Germany and repeat offenders Especially those who cannot pay do end up in jail. michaelrjames , youre rather confused. Webtfl fare evasion settle out of courtmeat carving knife blank. Plan a journey and favourite it for quick access in the future, Choose postcodes, stations and places for quick journey planning, Find out more about the Single Justice Procedure and how to submit your plea, London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. Do you think the econometric, austerity-minded policies w.r.t. Also, how do you cite someone who doesnt have ID? The German one is to make it easy to follow the law and then use enforcement to not make it so easy to break it. And it more or less coped with delivering those 1-2 million in a few hours without major drama. That is true in HK and Singapore which arent really inexpensive city-states but have transit use as a priority over road use. At the moment that the rail industry is having a long drawn out argument on the best way forward as everyone can see the season ticket is dying but the political cost of getting rid of it is too high, so some form of fudge will be needed. If I am riding home from work and I stop at a bookstore, thats an extra fare, but its also an extra peak trip. Wow, I had no idea a Japanese city could have so much car dependent sprawl! A Monthly Travelcard for zones 1-2 (inner London) is 134.80 (US$169.45, 150.96) Finally, as to user satisfaction, you may well be correct if youre talking of the Brits/Londoners. have been recorded, including against people with mental disability trying to validate their ticket with their disability discount count, with fare inspector questioning authenticity of the disabled passengers proof of disability, and MTR have defended these actions by saying they are allowed to use reasonable violence against those who suspected to have violated their bylaw. Of all the oddities thrown up by rail privatisation, this must rank among the oddest: a train company in the business of running fewer trains. Tear down these faregates. The form will ask you whether you intend to plead guilty or not guilty and will give you an option to enter your plea by post. That is illogical. The travelling public in the East seems a lot more happy with their experience than the travelling public you refer to in the West. Your first point is the more important one: absolute rate is way lower. They were extremely professional and helpful. I wouldnt say that, most people are commuting from the suburbs to the center city, so on weekends the pass can be used to visit the center for shopping, cultural events, etc, not to mention any intermediate destinations along the route. 95% of users would use an electronic card that you sweep when you enter and when you exit, and only know the price when they exit. Hello there and thank you for choosing to use our service. Typical nit-picking scrooges.) Its true that Dunkirk is trialing free public transport, but Dunkirk isnt exactly a shining example of good transit and its free transit trial mostly reduced cycling rates with barely any effect on driving rates. BART has a three-pronged problem that it is dealing with concerning fare-evasion. So if the breakeven point is exactly 45, people who only use transit for commuting are on the knifes edge and in most cases wont get a monthly. if someone from outside the metro drives and parks on-street they have to either meter or pay daily parking rates on a app. In this context the metro is not totally out of place for German practice, just for bigger cities. Hope that isnt a dark omen. In contrast, the unlicensed churro vending is more a problem of city and state regulations making it too onerous to sell food. In the majority of cases, commuters pay the fare, take the time and bear the brunt of the health costs. Of course, you can ask for transit to be free, and investments budgets to be endless, but that is not a very constructive approach to solve real-world problems. Except of course it only delays the inevitable building of proper transit, which delay causes an entirely different level of cost escalation, not to mention opportunity cost. Its funny that the US is all about making things run like the private sector. The pricing in Singapore isnt particularly complex nowadays. These activities are really not the same fare evasion really is something to be discourage, just not with batons. As they push out, all non-frequent transit users, the support among transit-users for monthly passes is understandably high (a typical insider-outsider issue). WebFare evasion from tfl which led to a court summoning. Why? Paris has one-way faregates, so half the exit space is unusable during (one-way) busy times, and the exit gates are hard to open and easy to close in order to discourage fare dodging. $50 for a week pass, $127 for monthly, $1500 annual. > However, again one should compare the compact arrangement of Ile de France versus what happens with Japan & Tokyos laissez-faire development policies. the. I was quickly directed to Mr Black who successfully plead my case and saved my professional carer! In the case of rail commutes, for example, 2.6 billion would return to the pockets of commuters should the scheme be fully rolled out. Settling case out of court (fare evasion) | RailUK Forums. In a country that has, stupidly, bet everything on London, GTR is utterly crucial to the national economy. WebTo have a criminal record for fare evasion, you must be found guilty of an offence or plead guilty at Court. That doesnt pay for itself. Yes, though my employer (in as much as they paid my salary since a lot of the time I was on fellowship, ie. SB, 2019/11/15 09:51 Is there any country where ethnic minority which is poorer than rest of the population is not disproportionately inprisoned? I was facedwith the prospect of receiving a hefty fine and a criminal record. MS (July 2017), I would like to place on record my sincere thanks for the highly professional and thorough service that I received from BSB Solicitors. Inspectors who cant make a citation without using physical violence should not work as inspectors. Yes. the Foret de Fontainebleau is 2.5x the size of intramuros Paris! They actually reduced the fare on the Staten Island ferry to zero. It is very likely that your employer paid some part, and, depending on the size of the enterprise, it is a discount. Fare evasion is fascinating and TfL have done a bunch of interesting papers on it over the years. N.A (April 2017), Stay up to date with Criminal Law with BSB Solicitors, BSB solicitors, 2 John Street, Britain generally overuses faregates, for example on the commuter trains in London. The issue is how to get those who live in it to use transit for more of their travel. Unfortunately, the problem of indifference to monthlies on urban rail is common around the Anglosphere. And it does an appalling job. After contacting several firms, I was greeted with a strong sense of optimism by everyone at BSB Solicitors. These are the exact opposite of your econometric analysis. American transit agencies and activists resist calls for large monthly discounts, on a variety of excuses. They might have a different scheme to purely private employers. Come on that reeks that of condescension to the poor. Punishing drivers for occasional trips relative frequent transit riders also seems like a both inefficient, and politically flawed way, of encouraging switching to transit. In Paris, various classes of low-income riders, such as the unemployed, benefit from a solidarity fare discount of 50-75%. In reality, this would actually be a cost saving measure because any system to collect fares, be that fare gates or proof of payment, is very expensive, so getting your revenue from taxes instead of fares would actually be cheaper for the residents. London has a card like HKs but no one would call it a travel bargain being at minimum twice as expensive as Paris. a longer trip across town to an Ikea store or whatever. In fact I strongly believe they are counterproductive, and not just by making using the system very irritating and off-putting for the users. if you dont have them, lots of people, and not just affluent whites, are going to stay away. He was just pointing out a common activist position on transit in the United States. One doesnt think, on the weekend or non-commuting period, whether to take a short or a long trip on the Metro, one thinks of the trips one wants/needs to take and might compare doing it by Metro, private car or taxi. A better method is to ensure most passengers have prepaid already, by offering generous monthly discounts. Is France really going to repeat this nonsense? I more or less agree but then if we compare Greater Paris with Tokyo, the former with very affordable transit and the latter with more expensive transit, then clearly it doesnt always follow, ie. A big reason why many Americans would prefer to spend an hour in traffic rather than 30 minutes on a bus or train ir s that they dont want to deal with ill-behavior on the subway. I will try to help with this. Id be extremely surprised. WebThank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 14th March 2022 asking for information about fare evasion. Caltrain has an unlimited annual GoPass (http://www.caltrain.com/Fares/tickettypes/GO_Pass.html) they only make available to large employers, who must pay based on total eligible employee headcount and not actual employee usage. For Ile de France the versement transport VT payroll tax has at times funded 40% of StiFs operational costs (I dont know how that breaks down for different modes) and it sounded like they were proposing something like that for the UK. However, again one should compare the compact arrangement of Ile de France versus what happens with Japan & Tokyos laissez-faire development policies. Webtfl fare evasion settle out of courtadvanced spelling bee words for adults. In the real-life Berlin, theres an entire subculture of fare dodging. And it shows little sign of improving. So if someone rides a King County Bus, then a Sound Transit train, both Sound Transit and King County get money. If you require advice you should contact a solicitor. I wouldnt hold Japan up as a model here, since many (most?) Webpediag > Blog > Uncategorized > tfl fare evasion settle out of court. They are hostile to passengers with disabilities, they cost money to maintain, they constrain passenger flow at busy times, and they dont really save money evidently, New Yorks subway fare evasion rate is within the range of Berlin, Munich, and Zurich. Turned things around very quickly and were the most efficient solicitors I have ever dealt with. [my selected extracts], https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Autonomy-claim-the-commute-2021-v9.pdf. Its not about catching habitual offenders. Regulation Authority (SRA) and are registered for VAT in the United Kingdom (VAT No Subsidizing transit commutes is certainly much better than subsidizing car commutes, but the end result still seems like it could be much better if commutes were less subsidized. The consequence is that pretty much everyone using the system during peak hours has a pass. This is done in various forms such as responding to a single justice procedure notice or pleading guilty in person at a court hearing. Fares are an important component of public transport revenue; the taxes required to eliminate fares are significant enough that there are probably better uses for the money. And the S-Bahn gets subsidies because of lower suburban ridership, same as the RER/Transilien. There are various statistical ways of determining how much each agency should receive of that monthly pass. Bonus! I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. [You double-posted; I deleted the shorter version.]. Andy Byford, New York Citys transit president, has maintained that fares are crucial in improving rider experience. I am very pleased with the conclusion of my case. One or two fewer workdays does not change the logic much for a working person residing in a zero-car household. ), * Paris + Petite Couronne are 762km^2 with a population density of 8.8k/km^2, * The 23 Wards of Tokyo are 619km^2 with a population density of 15.1k/km^2, * le-de-France is 12,012km^2 with a population density of 1.0k/km^2, * Itto Sanken is 13,500km^2 with a population density of 2.6k/km^2, * Kanto + Shizuoka (wide enough to cover pretty much every Tokyo commuter including distant Shinkansen suburbs, though is dominated by wilderness and includes many towns that dont have commute links with Tokyo at all) is 40,200km^2 with a population density of 1.1k/km^2. I suspect the reason Paris is capping-curious is precisely that the breakeven point there is so high it was 52 relative to buying tickets in bundles of 10 last time I was there. I think its also right thing to talk about the sum of the three: Transit, even expensive transit, is nearly always affordable as is. I wasimmediately madeto feel at ease at our first meeting and they always provided very clear instructions and advice throughout our email communications. This is less of an issue on Commuter systems where its mostly the trains that get crush loaded, but revenue protection is even more important for them as fare levels are higher. If the breakeven point is in the high 30s, then this is much simpler even commuters get monthlies and therefore can ride off-peak for free. Bourgeois standards of behavior is what allows public spaces of all sorts to function, whether it be transit, parks, plazas, or beaches. This weekend in the same Travel section there was a letter replying to the first letter writer. However, the large fare reductions to qualifying low-income riders are: a number of cities have used the same definition, namely Medicaid eligibility, and give steep discounts for bikeshare systems. And probably linked in to ICE. But instead, each agency requires the card user to pay (tap the reader). I agree with the premise of the article that we need to relax enforcement. The system is a horrible mess seemingly designed to trap one into expense unless you choose conditions that are no ones first choice. widespread availability of payment kiosks and retail sales locations as well as a low or zero upfront cost would seem to be reasonable starting points. The turnstile acts as a reminder to everyone to pay their fare, since its not possible to fare-dodge without actively jumping it. Development London, Guidance in providing supporting documents. 800851655). And the Overground runs nearly break even, which I think is what the report was complaining about. This is an issue where my main methodology for making recommendations for Americans looking at peer developed countries is especially useful. Again, counter logical. (England) Hi, I got a fare evasion summoning me to court, and Id like to know if theres a possible out of court settlement option from tfl as Im not trying to stain my record. You know what you pay, and you wont get any surprises. In smaller operations, I actually encountered that the driver just counted the number of people getting on and off (well, that was in a midi bus, or even smaller one. There needs to be some power behind the ticket-writer. The mass transit (light rail) system is run by one agency, and the bus system(s) are run by others. Theres no monthly fare capping in London, but the travel card has a breakeven point of 48 in zones 1-3, which means that commuters who dont take the Tube off-peak will rarely hit the cap. Of course efficiency is important but it is not achieved by those approaches, no matter how theory predicts it. In Vancouver, Cubic lobbying and a New Right campaign about fare evasion forced TransLink to install faregates on SkyTrain, and when the faregate project had predictable cost overruns, the campaigners took that as evidence the agency shouldnt get further funding. Unsurprisingly, the UK train system is privatised, no doubt this accounts for these exorbitant prices. It cancels more trains than all the other rail firms in Britain put together. (slightly out of date; too lazy to update): With regard to other countries in the Anglosphere, I think Singapore and London actually do have monthlies: Singapore has the Adult Monthly Travel Card allowing unlimited use of bus and train services for a month islandwide, for $120. In terms even an econo-rationalist (rational plan, Martin Kolk ) should understand: it works best when it is nearly frictionless. What if those exit-only turnstiles are actually supplementary to those where the entrance and swipe-card machines are? This skewed thinking has meant that substantial financial burdens are being placed upon commuters (not to mention the public at large) whilst other beneficiaries of commuting (employers) are not contributing to its financing. Good lord! You specifically dont want discounts on tolls, though the point of tolling is to discourage car traffic, e.g. Thats not my impression but admit I dont have direct experience for several decades now. (The metro area mode shares are 43% and 30% respectively, but Ile-de-France has 240 annual rail trips per capita and Metro New York has about 100.). @Alon That is the sensible way to do it. This is bad practice, especially for passengers who prefer to refill at a ticketing machine rather than at home or on their phone with an app, since it means passengers visit the ticketing machines more often, requiring the agency to buy more to avoid long lines. Plus, when its late at night and my phone battery is dying and Im worried about getting inspected (since my monthly pass is on my phone), reasonably bourgeois people tell me not to worry because in practice there are no inspections late at night. Intuitively most of the induced extra trips, in a monthly fee, rather than pay per usage system, will be very short trips, that are easily substituted by walking or biking. A TFL fare evasion solicitor can intervene at this stage by writing a detailed letter of representation on your behalf, arguing that a prosecution would not be in the That is a ridiculous and misleading claim. Slightly curiously Stockholm has faregates (as you certainly know). Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. monthly passes is that be encouraging heavy rather than occasional (mixed with biking and walking) use of transit, it encourages large geographical sprawl. Country.From .To.Month pass%av earnings Any maintenance on these escalators requires wearing haz-mat suits. I concur, and Ive used London, NYC, HK, Tokyo, Shanghai, Moscow, Beijing amongst mega-city metro systems. Because the truth is that ANYONE will fare evade, its just for these people it is a conscious (or almost-conscious) act based on a bunch of questions they are running through in their head:.
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