The tramway of the metropolitan region of Barcelona has launched an anti-fraud campaign to make people who use public transport aware of the need to validate their ticket on every journey. The campaign aims to put an end to a practice that is more frequent in this mode of transport than in others.
The campaign, under the motto “No queuing”, uses various excuses that ticket inspectors and the customer service team hear every day on trains. The most common one is “I left my ticket at home”.
This Tram initiative is accompanied by a text informing of the consequences of committing fraud: offenders will have to pay a fine of 100 euros.
It coincides that validations on the Barcelona tram have increased in 2023 and even exceeded the data from before the pandemic. In May, a historic figure was reached in the two decades of operation of this service when the different Tram lines reached three million validations.
This record confirmed an upward trend that had been perceived for months and that has continued in the following months.
So, a few days ago, on October 3, Trambaix, that is T1, T2 and T3, reached 84,305 validations, the best figure in a single day in the entire history of this medium transportation
The increase in the number of passengers has led the managers of the Tram company to launch this anti-fraud campaign and, at the same time, to strengthen surveillance and inspection work.
In the first half of this year, 1.38% of inspections in the Trambaix network and 1.83% in the Trambesòs network ended in the corresponding disciplinary proceedings. In the same period of 2022, the penalties on the total of inspections were 2.12% in Trambaix and 2.86% in Trambesòs.
The “No queue” campaign will last a month and can be seen on the tram’s physical supports and also on online channels: stops, trams, validators, web and social networks. In addition, the campaign will be accompanied by an increase in inspection in both networks.