Financial Services, Latvia, Transport

Rigas Satiksme ticket inspectors conducted 28,900 inspections in public transport, which is by 7,980 inspections more than a month ago, but the number of fare dodgers caught in public transport was considerably smaller than usual. For example, in March there were also 28,113 inspections conducted, but 5,576 fare dodgers were caught.

Compared to May 2016, when the number of inspections reached 25,052, and the number of ticketless passengers was 6,640, the number has dropped 7.4 times.

Riga residents posted earlier in social networks that the number of ticket inspectors in public transport seemingly has declined before the elections, and those passengers who have been caught without tickets had not been fined, just warned.

Meanwhile, Rigas Satiksme explained that in May inspectors registered passenger flow to obtain information about the necessary routes.

Rigas Satiksme spokesman Viktors Zakis told LETA that fare dodgers were not caught in May because ticket inspectors had other tasks – to measure transport flow. This explains why the number of ticketless passengers caught in May declined,” he said.

There were 470 ticketless passengers caught in buses, 263 in trolleybuses and 164 in trams in May this year. Of these fare dodgers, 199 paid their fines right away and 690 were issued fine receipts.

The highest number of inspections was conducted in buses (12,724), followed by trolleybuses (10,728) and trams (5,538).

Rigas Satiksme, which is fully owned by the Riga City Council, provides bus, tram and trolleybus services to passengers in Riga.