Fare evasion rate on Ennis-Limerick line highest in the country

Over 7% of passengers on the Ennis to Limerick line travelled without a valid ticket last year.

A new survey by the National Transport Authority reveals the service has one of the highest fare evasion rate in the country along with the Limerick to Dublin service, with 7.2% of passengers on each avoiding paying the correct fare.

The NTA survey shows six out of every 100 passengers travelling on national services last year did so without a valid ticket, with 60% having no ticket at all and 25% “overriding” by using a ticket valid for a shorter journey.

It’s estimated the NTA could be losing €12.3 million a year due to fare evasion based on the 35.8 million passenger journeys recorded in 2022, according to the survey results which were obtained under freedom of information legislation.

The survey of almost 21,000 passengers was conducted between January 2022 and March 2023, and was carried out by researchers on behalf of the NTA rather than Iarnród Éireann ticket inspectors.

It shows passengers are more likely to dodge paying the correct fare on DART and commuter services than on intercity routes.

They revealed the highest fare evasion rates were among passengers travelling on commuter services in Cork, while the lowest rates were on Dublin-Belfast Enterprise services, at 2.8%.