In 2013, HSL’s goal was to increase the number of tickets inspected and target the inspections in a certain way to reduce fare dodging. HSL not only reached the goal but exceeded it as last year HSL inspected the tickets of some 4 million passengers compared to 3.4 million in 2012.
New technology played a key role in making the inspections more effective. In spring 2012, HSL replaced the old, poorly working inspection devices with new ones. The new devices clearly speeded up ticket inspectors’ work: in 2012, a ticket inspector inspected the tickets of 232 passengers per day on average, last year the figure was about 260 per day.
In 2014, HSL continues tickets inspections along the same lines. Visible and effective ticket inspections keep fare evasion in check and help to increase ticket revenue. HSL targets inspections on those services where fare dodging is the most common, i.e. on rail services, route 550 where open fare collection is being trialed, and on the night Metro.
As HSL lost nearly EUR million 8 due to fare dodging last year, fare evasion still makes a significant dent in the public transport finances.