Sharp increase in people dodging public transport fares in Amsterdam

Amsterdam public transport company GVB noticed a significant increase in people traveling on its buses, trams, and metros without valid tickets. GVB workers caught about 50 percent more fare dodgers last year than in the pre-coronavirus years, Het Parool reports.

In trams without conductors, 4.5 percent of passengers were caught riding without a ticket in 2022. The catch rate was 2.2 percent on the metro, 1.1 percent on trams with conductors, and 0.8 percent on buses. Those figures are about 50 percent higher compared to pre-pandemic 2019.

The GVB doesn’t have hard figures on the number of fare dodgers, a spokesperson told Parool. “We do not have a checklist at every entrance to check whether someone has paid.” The percentages are based on what GVB employees encounter during their regular checks. They check about 700,000 travelers every year.

There are always non-paying travelers in the public transport system, the spokesperson said. “But it has worsened since corona, and not paying for public transportation seems to have become normal.”

The GVB believes fare dodging is a mentality problem and launched a campaign to encourage people to pay. “With a campaign, we want to make our travelers aware that not paying for your trip is antisocial.” The Amsterdam transport company hopes to reduce the lost income by 1.5 million euros.

“We realize that certain, deliberately non-paying travelers will not be swayed. So the focus is on the followers, travelers who show herd behavior,” the spokesperson said.