[Greens-Media] New info shows public transport infringements system doesn't work - Greens

[Elizabeth.Ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au]

New figures* obtained by Victorian Greens Leader Greg Barber show the 
infringements system for public transport tickets is not working, so we 
should replace it with staff who sell tickets.

"Ticket inspectors are unreliable and are getting worse. About 14% of the 
people they book don't end up paying a fine; up from 11% two years ago. If 
our speed camera system had a 14% failure rate, it would be shut down 
tomorrow."

"The Authorised Officer system doesn't work. We should bring back the 
'Connies' - the tram conductors who sell tickets - and put on more station 
staff. If someone is caught without a ticket, we should sell them one."

"Other documents show that only 2% of tickets are checked by ticket 
inspectors, and of those, 2% of those are issued a fine.** If we wanted to 
employ enough ticket inspectors to catch the 15% who the government says 
don't have a ticket, we might as well put a conductor on every tram and a 
station master on every train station. Now, there's an idea - sell people 
tickets."

"The figures I received in Parliament show that of the reports made by 
Authorised Officers, 3% don't even make it past the Quality Control 
Officer. 15% of Infringement Notices are reviewed by the Department of 
Transport and of those, 56% are knocked out - so a person querying an 
infringement has a better than even chance. Another 9% end up in the 
Infringements Court, of which 21% are waived. All up nearly 19,000 people 
had their public transport fine 'forgiven' in one year."

For comment: Greg Barber - 0433 044 771 

* Question On Notice No. 2741, answered by Transport Minister Terry Mulder 
on 12 September: 
http://vicmps.greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/120912%20Mulder%20QON%20answer%20infringements.pdf
Analysis of the figures:  
http://vicmps.greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/120917%20public%20transport%20infringements%20QON%20analysis_0.doc 



** Network Revenue Protection Plan 2011/12 -
http://vicmps.greens.org.au/sites/greens.org.au/files/Network%20Revenue%20Plan.pdf

***************************************

Liz Ingham
Office of Greg Barber MLC
Northern Metropolitan Region
Victorian Greens Leader

P: 9348 2622
M: 0409 333 595
E: elizabeth.ingham at parliament.vic.gov.au
W: http://mps.vic.greens.org.au

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Parliament of Victoria                                                                                                                    . 
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