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Four out of five SNCB fines go unpaid
Of the €23 million in fines handed out last year for fare dodging on a Belgian train, only about €3 million have been paid, writes De Zondag based on figures from federal mobility minister François Bellot.
The figures show that Belgian rail company SNCB in 2015 fined 334,134 passengers for riding without a valid ticket. By the end of the year, only 73,187 of those fines were paid.
Flemish party Vlaams Belang would like to see a better collection method, and accuses the FPS Justice of not making more of a priority of fare dodging. "A logical consequence of this impunity is the high number of repeat offenders. As many as 8,260 fare dodgers who were fined last year have also been caught more than five times in the past," says Vlaams Belang MP Barbara Pas.
Comments
This is scandalous but typical. Lots of rules but never ever any follow through. No wonder people hop onto trains and trams and no one ever pays. I rarely see anyone pay on a tram -- I feel like an idiot when I do. Everyone, whether you have a student abonnement or whatever, should have to swipe something to indicate you have paid at some point. The country needs these funds and yet nothing is done.
Public transport here is cheap, so pay your way when you use it!
It's not cheap, it's just other people get to pay for it.
Not chasing the non-payers would be a clear embezzlement of public funds! However it looks that the SNCB is not doing anything or do not go sufficiently far. 20 million EUR on public funds is an huge amount! I hope that the court of audit has an eye on it and sues the direction of the SNCB and even the responsible Minister for inactivity. Not to mention that the court has to claim for indemnity.