State body to spend €3m to counter fare dodgers on public transport

In a new request for tender, the NTA is seeking a contractor to carry out detailed surveys for four years across a range of services including Dublin Bus, GoAhead Ireland, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail. File picture: Denis Minihane

Over €3m is set to be spent to clamp down on fare evasion on public transport services around the country, the National Transport Authority has said.

In a new request for tender, the NTA is seeking a contractor to carry out detailed surveys for four years across a range of services including Dublin Bus, GoAhead Ireland, Bus Éireann and Irish Rail.

It comes after data released under Freedom of Information last year revealed that transport operators lost out on €20m across 2024 as a result of fare dodgers.

“A total of 15,200 individual passenger Fare Evasion Surveys are required to be completed per quarter, subject to review during the contract,” the NTA said. “The survey is a critical piece of work for the [NTA] and various transport contracts that rely on its result.” 

As part of the contracts for the various public transport providers, fare evasion rate is seen as a “key performance indicator” with an aim of keeping the number of people not paying the fare as low as possible.

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The surveys will begin in the second quarter of this year, during the busy rush hour services. The NTA included a sample of a particular shift that would start in Dublin at 8am and take in five different bus services in an hour.

The tender documents include very detailed instructions on what to do based on how busy a service is and sample conversations with passengers who don’t have a valid ticket.

“When a vehicle is fully-laden with passengers, surveyors will be positioned inside the vehicle several stops/stations before the survey takes place in order to avoid only surveying passengers who stand near the door, and to survey those in the normally difficult to access area,” it said.

“If the ticket is invalid other questions will normally need to be asked, such as: ‘Have you shown me the correct ticket?' or ‘Do you have another ticket?’. Both questions will normally provoke the response ‘Why’, which gives the surveyor the opportunity to point out ‘This ticket is out of date…’.

“The surveyor will conclude each interview with the words ‘Thank you’.” 

In the data published last year, it showed the highest fare evasion rates in 2024 were on Dart and commuter rail services, with 6.9% of passengers not having a valid ticket for their journey.

Bus Éireann services, meanwhile had its highest evasion rates on two services in Cork — the 220X Ovens-Crosshaven route (35.3%) and 206 Grange-South Mall (34.3%).