Just one $2 fare abuser nabbed

Authorities have referred to police only one case of allegedly abusing the HK$2 concessionary public transport scheme after a citywide inspection launched two months ago.

Transport Department officers conducted ticket checks on more than 500 franchised buses, minibuses and 3,230 ferry trips between June 26 and August 26, checking about 1,780 passengers suspected to be ineligible for the scheme.

"After verification, it was found that the vast majority of them were law-abiding and only one case has been referred to the police for follow-up."

The department said they will continue to conduct inspections from time to time in conjunction with public transport operators to enhance the deterrent effect, so as to ensure that the scheme is only used by those eligible.

The department said the government had required people aged between 60 and 64 to use the JoyYou Card bearing the name and photo of the cardholder, so as to facilitate frontline staff of public transport operators to readily identify the users.

Arrangement on suspending Anonymous Elder Octopus and Personalized Octopus in the HK$2 scheme will be announced later.

"It is believed that the full implementation of the above arrangements will further reduce abuse of the HK$2 scheme."

In addition, according to the MTRCL, the number of people abusing the HK$2 scheme in the past two months has dropped by 35 percent, compared with the time before the company raised the surcharge of fare evasion or abusing concessions to a maximum of HK$1,000 on June 25.

The MTRCL said that as of last Friday, 4,880 fare evasion cases were detected by MTR staff during ticket inspections, of which 842 cases involved the abuse of the HK$2 scheme.

The MTRCL has imposed a surcharge on the passengers involved.

But lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun criticized the government on Facebook yesterday, accusing them of "just doing a show" on combating the abuse of the scheme.

He said that the government's operation was merely a superficial solution and described it as "treating the symptoms but not the root cause."

He also said that the problem will resurface soon.

Tien said that the current implementation of surcharge is still ineffective and suggested that the MTRCL should increase them to HK$ 2,000 or HK$ 3,000, believing that such a measure would significantly reduce such cases.

He called on the government to invalidate all existing Elder Octopus cards from November, after the completion of the replacement of the JoyYou card in October.