Ticketing and Concessionary Travel on Public Transport - United ...

Ev 90 Transport Committee: Evidence
authorities, especially in unitary areas, might cut local bus services in order to save on the subsidies
they will be providing to concessionary pass holders? This should be considered before the
Government makes any decisions on local government reorganisation or finance. The significance
of unitary status is that it means that the same tier of government will be supporting concessionary
pass holders as will be deciding on service levels for supported bus services.
5.11 Are concessionary fares schemes suYciently integrated across diVerent modes of transport <strong>and</strong>
diVerent geographical areas? I believe that concessionary pass holders living in areas that are very
dependent on rail transport should be entitled to free travel on their local lines, but otherwise I
accept that it may not be desirable to provide unlimited free travel on trains. The scheme coming
into force in 2008 will provide integration across the whole of Engl<strong>and</strong> outside London; I do not
know what provision, if any, will be made for integration between London, the rest of Engl<strong>and</strong>,
Wales, Scotl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> Northern Irel<strong>and</strong>.
6. Let me conclude by making the following recommendations.
6.1 New legislation should be introduced to make it clear that bus operators do have a right to make
interavailability agreements provided that these do not exclude any third operator that may
provide services which might be covered.
6.2 Local transport authorities should have a duty to extend the validity of bus operators’ integrated
tickets to supported services running in the same general area. The same should apply to return
tickets where at least one leg is by supported service.
6.3 Local transport authorities should have a duty to include in their timetable publcity full <strong>and</strong> up to
date details of all integrated ticketing schemes covering all or part of their area. Passengers would
be able to carry such details with them which would help to avoid disputes with bus drivers <strong>and</strong>
train ticket oYces <strong>and</strong> conductors. (Note: at present there is not even a duty to provide timetable
publicity—I believe there should be, but this is presumably beyond the remit of this inquiry.)
6.4 Rail operators should have a duty to develop integrated ticketing, including interavailability
agreements with bus operators who run on parallel routes outside train operating hours or during
hours when cheaper tickets are not accepted on trains.
6.5 Rail operators should be given assistance with adapting ticket machines to issue all relevant tickets,
as well as with providing for any relevant smartcards. Furthermore, in stations that straddle level
crossings, such ticket machines should be available at both sides of the station.
6.6 Penalty fares should not be imposed where the conditions of (e) are not satisfied. Furthermore they
should not apply to people who have legitimate reason to access station platforms for purposes
other than catching trains.
March 2007
Memor<strong>and</strong>um from Transport Investigations Ltd (TIL) (TPT 12)
1. I am the Managing Director of Transport Investigations Ltd (TIL), a small business providing
Revenue Protection support <strong>and</strong> consultancy services for rail operators. I have over 40 years experience in
the rail industry, joining British Rail as a graduate management trainee in 1966, <strong>and</strong> having held a variety
of posts up to privatisation, including responsibility for this activity in the East Midl<strong>and</strong>s <strong>and</strong> for the former
Southern Region <strong>and</strong> Network SouthEast. Since privatisation in 1996 I have undertaken a variety of
consultancy roles, primarily in the fares <strong>and</strong> ticketing field. This work has included the development of the
Oyster smartcard system for use on the national rail network for TfL. TIL’s current main clients are TOCs,
DLR <strong>and</strong> TfL, <strong>and</strong> we also do work in Irel<strong>and</strong>. The company has developed unique experience in the revenue
protection field, <strong>and</strong> this covers staV training <strong>and</strong> supply, support work to combat fare evasion, including
debt recovery <strong>and</strong> prosecution, <strong>and</strong> the conduct of fraud or ticket-less travel surveys. Although I have
expertise across the area the Committee is investigating, I intend to focus my contribution on revenue
protection in the rail industry as this is an activity that is often not well understood <strong>and</strong> where
misconceptions can flourish. The purpose of this note is to suggest that the legislative framework is generally
adequate for the protection of rail revenue, but that the practices deployed by operators are often less than
optimal. In particular there is a fairly widespread failure properly to measure the extent <strong>and</strong> underst<strong>and</strong> the
reasons for fare evasion, <strong>and</strong> therefore to take appropriate action. There is, on the National Rail network,
a common belief in the benefits of closing access at stations <strong>and</strong> installing automatic ticket gates. Such
schemes are costly <strong>and</strong> often a substitute for more creative strategies that might improve customer service
<strong>and</strong> revenue control.
2. Railways <strong>and</strong> other public transport modes have traditionally suVered from revenue shrinkage
through some failures to collect revenue <strong>and</strong> fare evasion. The problem is as old as the industry <strong>and</strong> most
approaches to it are not novel. Customers can be described as either motivated to pay or motivated to evade
their fares, <strong>and</strong> then in turn as active or passive in this regard. Someone who is active <strong>and</strong> motivated to pay
will always try to do so, <strong>and</strong> the ticket sales channels must be optimised to allow that. A passive person will
not make that eVort if the purchase of a ticket is made diYcult or the opportunity to pay is not presented.