Sydney’s smart card system to tackle fare evasion
25 July, 2011
category: Contactless, Transit
The new smart card system on Sydney’s CityRail transit network should help officials battle fare evasion, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
Expected to launch in 2014, the system will require passengers to swipe their fare cards twice – once when getting on and once when getting off, with the fare deducted on the second swipe. If the passenger fails to “swipe off,” a higher charge will be deducted after a certain amount of time has elapsed.
In addition to steeper penalties, RailCorp, operator of CityRail, says the new system will call for ticket gates that will act as barriers, thus keeping out fare dodgers.
So far only 47 of CityRail’s 307 stations use ticket gates, but RailCorp plans to cover all 307 by 2014, acccording to SMH.
According to SMH, 13.3 million trips were stolen this past year on the CityRail network, accounting for a loss of $33.9 million. By comparison, the cost of fare evasion in 2009 was an estimated $28.4 million – about 20 percent less.
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