Swiss people may have a reputation for honesty, but more than a million people were listed in the national register of public transport fare dodgers in Switzerland at the end of 2024 — the highest number since the records were created in 2019.
The number of commuters fined for riding trains, buses, and trams without a valid ticket is now 1,008.251, but the real number of fare dodgers is much higher as many don’t get caught.
Young people are the largest single group among the evaders — those under 26 years of age make up 35 percent of all dodgers, according to Manuela Ruoss, a spokesperson for the SwissPass Alliance, an umbrella organisation for 265 transport companies.
Those who do, must not only pay a fine, in addition to the price of their ticket, but their name is also included in a national register of fare dodgers.
That’s because riding without a ticket is a serious matter: it results in financial losses of 200 million francs per year for all of Switzerland’s public transport providers (which, eventually, leads to fare increases for the entire population).
What exactly is this infamous register?
Until 2019, Switzerland’s transport operators had maintained their own lists of passengers caught travelling either without a ticket or without the correct ticket for their journey.
But from 2019, a unified, Swiss-wide electronic list of fare dodgers was created.
The centralised system made it easy to identify ‘serial’ offenders — that is, people who rode without a ticket more than once.
This is important not only for statistical reasons, but also so that appropriate fines could be imposed.
What are the fines for fare dodging?
According to the website of the national rail company, SBB, travelling without a valid ticket costs 90 francs (in addition to the price of the ticket) if this is the commuters’ first offence — or at least the first time being caught.
For the second and third offences the surcharges are 130 and 160 francs, respectively.
Penalty for travel with a partly valid ticket is 70 francs for the first offence, 110 for the second, and 140 for third.
Habitual fare dodgers (more than three times without a ticket) could have a criminal complaint filed against them and do jail time.
However, the SwissPass Alliance is seeking to increase the chronic offender fine to 540 francs — enough to dissuade this practice once and for all.
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Why is the number of fare dodgers increasing?
There are two main reasons for this phenomenon, Ruoss said.
One is that prices of public transport have increased over the past years, making travel more expensive.
The second reason is that people (and especially young ones) like taking risks — especially since ticket controls are sporadic on buses and trams, and on short-distance train routes they are seldom checked.
