The effects of a higher ticket inspection rate in a medium-size public transportation system

When introducing electronic ticketing it can be economically sensitive for bus transport companies to introduce an honour-based ticketing which makes fare evasion an issue. Reported reasons for passengers travelling without a ticket in a bus transport system in a city in Germany are analysed. The many different reported reasons are classified to passengers travelling with ‘no ticket’, ‘no valid ticket’, and ‘ticket forgotten’. The latter category can be linked to holders of season tickets and is not relevant for revenue effects. The effects of an increase of the ticket inspection rate which was subsequently reduced to the initial level on the rate of passengers travelling with ‘no (valid) ticket’ and ‘ticket forgotten’ was analysed by means of Poisson regression. There is a substantial decrease of passengers who were reported to have their ‘ticket forgotten’ which was not found for passengers travelling with ‘no (valid) ticket’. Further, the decrease of passengers who forgot their tickets lasted even when the ticket inspection level decreased back to the former level. Knowledge of the differences of the effects on the reported reasons are relevant for revenue effects as well as for comparisons of fare evasion between different public transport systems.