I hear the announcements about ticket inspectors checking tickets 'in a COVID safe manner', yet in the last year I haven't seen a single AO. Before COVID I saw them 1-2 times a month. Has anyone seen an AO checking tickets on trams? Which routes?
Posted Apr 17, 2021, 1:12 PM UTC
They still seem to be targeting the trams to Melbourne Uni, where they checked everyone on the tram this week.
They were also checking the barriers at Parliament station as well last Wednesday morning as well.
It's a poor use of taxpayers money to put them on trams.
For starters there is the free tram zone, which means anywhere even within a few stops of that zone it's hard to catch fare evaders. Then you have the short vehicles that trams are, it's pretty easy to wait at the start of a stop and scan a tram as it arrives for AOs, then scan every stop as you pull in and run if you see one.
The fine for fare evasion is $248 which translates to approximately 55 trips. It's totally easy to ride the tram that many times without being caught, especially if you go into the city at peak hour.
Haven't seen ticket inspectors but have seen cops kicking people off trams for not wearing a mask. Happened about a week ago.
I haven't seen them on trains coming through but I did get stopped when I tapped off on Melbourne Central last week in the afternoon just waiting at the gates. Also a few at Flagstaff checking tickets too.
I’ve seen them on the Lilydale/Belgrave line. They’re also regularly at Ringwood station.
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Hell, I journey on the Footscray tram and haven't seen them for years, pre-covid. Too lazy for it, even when you'd think it'd be a goldmine for em.
It’s not the number of fare evaders, it’s the difficultly. They’d rather target the Nonna who can’t figure out her myki, or the student who’s down to their last box of ramen; rather than actually target the methed up “ciggy-butt brains” that actually cause problems for the rest of the tram.
It’s so inequitable that Public Transport should either be made free-for-all or just defund it completely.
Yeah people got all uptight about the AOs tackling and arresting aggressive and violent fare evaders, and they got a lot of bad press from being over zealous, so now they don’t get themselves in that situation, and stick to the easy targets.
It’s hardly their fault.
Yes I have seen them on St Kilda Rd lately
I've seen them many times in the 86 tram near La Trobe uni.
There's on the Flemington Rd trams a the time recently, often not wearing their masks properly, or respecting people's physical space, as usual
I’ve seen them on the 59 in the last few weeks. They were all wearing masks but didn’t ask/reminder other passengers on the tram to wear masks. I’ve also noticed they didn’t ask everyone on the tram to see their ticket, they just targeted a few individuals before getting off.
Hmmm, interesting. Was there any common thread in who they targeted?
There was - They just asked a group of Indian men who looked to be in their early 20s for their tickets and then the pack of officers got of the tram three stops later after making one bust. It was very bizarre and a little jarring. A lot of other passengers took their miyki out to present to the officers but we were never asked to have our cards seen.
Ugh. They seem to target people they know will be compliant. And they ignore the aggressive drug-affected passengers and the obviously complicated rough sleepers. I don’t think speed cameras are revenue raisers but I have my doubts about the AO’s performance target metrics.
Saw whole heap of them Collins at yesterday
In the past few months seen them on St kilda rd, the 96 around south melbourne, and on the 3 around Caulfield. The metro ones usually chill at gated stations though
Yes all St Kilda Rd Routes I’ve seen x2 in the last month