Travel tickets|HS tested how easy it is to get on the bus without showing a ticket. This is how bus company managers commented on the surprising result of the test.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Traveling without a ticket has become more common in the capital region, last year nearly 90,000 passengers were caught.
The HS reporter tested traveling with a pump and found it to be very easy.
HSL has started a campaign to prevent the use of fake tickets and plans to file criminal reports.
Transport operators suggest adding ticket inspectors and wider use of qr codes.
Bus drivers has been put in front of an unreasonable task with ticket passengers. This is what Koivisto Auto Helsinki’s traffic director thinks Mika Seppänen.
The company is one of the largest bus operators in the capital region.
“Some kind of explanation comes out from ticketless passengers, and the real threat is some sort of incident.”
Ticket in other words, the popularity of traveling by pummi has grown in the capital region. For example, almost 90,000 passengers were caught last year.
Helsingin Sanomat published on Tuesday of the articlewhere the reporter tested how easy it really is to travel with a pump. Result: really easy.
In the test, HS’s reporter tried to get on the bus by showing the driver Hesar’s homepage on his mobile phone. In fifteen test drives, only three drivers pointed this out. However, some of the drivers clearly noticed that there is no ticket.
More and more people also travel on public transport with a fake ticket.
Because of this phenomenon, Helsinki Region Transport (HSL) has started the Ih lipupu laitonta campaign, with which it reminds that using a fake ticket is wrong.
In the future, HSL intends to file a criminal complaint against all travelers who are caught traveling with a fake ticket.
In HS’s test, bus drivers were shown news instead of a ticket. The majority let in.
Helsinki an entire generation in the region has been trained in open financing, which has quickly turned into the idea of free public transport in many minds, says Mika Seppänen.
Open financing is used, for example, in trams, subways, commuter trains and orange trunk line buses. They also try to rush into blue buses at crowded stops through the middle doors.
“One colleague said that he and his daughter were waiting for the main line 600 bus. His daughter happily stated that, oh, there are now these free buses here too.”
The problems of open financing have long been a topic of discussion at HSL’s operator meetings. For example, on line 560, according to HSL’s estimate, about 10 percent of passengers are on board. You don’t have to show your ticket to anyone on that line.
“The reaction of our drivers is that it is not true, at least half go unpaid.”
Transport operators have proposed increasing ticket inspectors in bus traffic as a solution to weeding out ticket passengers. Ticket inspectors are only occasionally seen on buses.
In addition, the operators have proposed a wider use of the qr code: instead of passengers showing the driver a mobile ticket, they would have to acknowledge the qr code with the bus’s reader device.
Such practice already exists in many cities, for example Tampere and Stockholm.
Regional manager of Nobina Mårten Winqvist points out that the driver’s duties include checking that the customer has a valid ticket, but the driver does not have the legal right to remove passengers.
“Sanctioning belongs to the ticket inspectors.”
HSL is currently renewing its ticketing system and card readers in public transport. During this autumn, more than four thousand new reader devices are to be installed on all means of transport.
The new card readers make it possible to buy a ticket with contactless payment, i.e. with a bank or credit card.
Dandy Mbah was one of the bus drivers who was caught by the HS reporter during the ticket test.
Although the driver has to point out the absence of a ticket, according to Winqvist, the risk is a dispute situation, the consequences of which will have to be suffered by all passengers.
“It is a contradictory task for the driver. If the driver takes on the role of a ticket inspector, the situation can easily escalate. Then the train is late and the other passengers get to listen to Chinese.”
Some drivers check the ticket more carefully than others. For operators, the most important thing is to ensure that the ride is safe and that the bus stays reasonably on schedule.
“Rarely pointing out has led to any very positive results.”
Winqvist believes that the popularity of traveling by pump is due to the sum of many factors.
One reason is that the importance of the ticket transaction has decreased when the driver no longer sells tickets. Another reason is the trunk lines, whose network has grown. Thirdly, Winqvist sees customers’ indifference, which the open financing of trunk lines might affect.
“People think that you don’t need a ticket when you use the bus.”
Nordic Traffic Director of Transport Jetta Leino does not feel that it is too easy to get a ticket on the bus.
“I don’t think so, if everything goes according to the instructions. Of course, it must be said that the driver is like a ticket inspector, but he is not a security guard. We put safety first.”
For now, he sees no need for changes, such as a stricter ticket inspection.
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