Almost 10% of passengers on Bus Éireann found to have no ticket
A Bus Eireann double-decker bus parked on South Mall, Cork. A survey of over 12,000 passengers on over 100 different Bus Éireann services found an average fare evasion rate of 9.1%.
Almost one in 10 of all passengers on Bus Éireann services were found to be travelling without a valid ticket, according to the results of fare evasion surveys carried out by the National Transport Authority.
However, a similar survey found the level of fare evasion on Dublin Bus services much lower at under 4%.
The results, which highlight fare evasion rates on public transport bus companies over an 18-month period to June 2023, were released under freedom of information legislation.
The findings of a similar study published earlier this year revealed fare evasion rates on Iarnród Éireann services averaged 6%.
However, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which carried out similar research in respect of fare evasion rates on Luas services, has refused to make its findings publicly available.
TII claimed releasing the information “could reasonably be expected to exacerbate such fare evasion, which is a criminal offence".
The survey of over 12,000 passengers on over 100 different Bus Éireann services found an average fare evasion rate of 9.1%.
The results covered bus routes operating in the main cities outside Dublin, including Cork, Galway, Limerick, and Waterford as well as provincial services to and from Dublin but excluding Expressway services.
The lack of valid tickets resulted in a reduction in fare income of 7.4%.
The highest evasion rates were found on provincial routes serving Galway to destinations such as Clifden and Athlone where the proportion of passengers without valid tickets averaged 16.5%.
Average evasion rates of almost 15% were also recorded on the busy 101 and 101X service between Dublin and Drogheda.
Fare evasion rates on Bus Éireann services in the main cities were Cork (12.4%); Galway (11.1%); Limerick (9.9%) and Waterford (5.4%) Some individual routes had very high evasion rates with more than half of all passengers checked on two routes – 261 (Cork-Ballinacurra) and D2 (Drogheda-Laytown) – not having valid tickets.
Fare evasion rates over 25% were also recorded on several other busy routes including the 216 (Cork University Hospital-Monkstown); 475 (Sligo-Coolaney); 236 (Cork-Castletownbere); 109 (Dublin-Kells-Cavan) and 226 (Kent Station-Kinsale).
However, passengers on over 30 different routes were found to be fully compliant with paying the correct fare.
The NTA survey revealed Dublin Bus, which carried 121.4 million passengers last year, had an average fare evasion rate of 3.6%.
The survey of over 12,200 passengers across over 80 routes showed the lack of valid tickets resulted in a loss of revenue of 4.3% on due fares.
Among those who had not paid the correct fare, 71% were found to have no ticket, while 26% were “overriding” with the remainder either having a wrongly classified or expired ticket.
A spokesperson for the NTA said the surveys had been commissioned to ascertain the level of fare evasion with public transport companies operating services under contract from the NTA “to identify any trends".
