{"id":557925,"date":"2026-03-22T23:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557925\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T23:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T23:31:10","slug":"queenslanders-hit-with-more-than-4-million-in-fare-evasion-fines-since-introduction-of-50-cent-fares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/557925\/","title":{"rendered":"Queenslanders hit with more than $4 million in fare evasion fines since introduction of 50-cent fares"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queensland fare evaders have been hit with more than $4.5 million in fines since 50 cent travel began \u2014 helping authorities claw back just over $7,000 in lost revenue.<\/p>\n

Between August 5, 2024, when discounted ticket prices kicked off, and March 4 this year, authorities gave out 14,141 penalty infringement notices for fare evasion.<\/p>\n

Most of those fines \u2014 about 7,500 \u2014 were issued on trains, with 3,714 penalties were given out on trams and 2,839 infringement notices dished out on buses.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The 50-cent fares were introduced in August 2024.\u00a0 (Supplied: Transport and Main Roads)<\/p>\n

The total value of fines over this 19-month period came in at $4.66 million.<\/p>\n

The penalties helped authorities recover $7,050.50 in revenue they would have collected if the fined commuters had paid their fare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another 75,744 warnings for fare evasion were also given out during this period, which equates to another $37,872 in lost revenue that was not clawed back through a fine.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Penalties from fare evasion are used to recoup lost revenue from the 50-cent fares.\u00a0 (ABC News: Mark Leonardi)<\/p>\n

In a statement, a spokesman for Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg stood by the fines \u2014 and said it was not worth doing the wrong thing.<\/p>\n

“A single fine is more than a year of commuting five days a week,” he said.<\/p>\n

The punishment for fare evasion is currently set at $333.<\/p>\n

More enforcement<\/p>\n

Overall, the number of fines on the state’s public transport network has dropped since 50 cent fares began.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Inspections have increased since the reduced fares were introduced.\u00a0 (Facebook: Queensland Rail)<\/p>\n

In 2023 \u2014 the last full calendar year before discounted prices commenced \u2014 authorities gave out 13,486 fines and 60,930 warnings.<\/p>\n

By comparison, in 2025, when all fares were 50 cents, there were 8,614 fines and 45,117 \u00a0warning notices.<\/p>\n

Enforcement has increased, though, since the reduced ticket prices started.<\/p>\n

In 2023, officials carried out 890,019 inspections on go cards and smart ticketing payment methods to ensure commuters had paid the correct fare.<\/p>\n

By 2025, the number of inspections had reached more than 1.16 million.<\/p>\n

Mr Mickelberg’s spokesman said the increase in inspections and the reduction in fines showed more Queenslanders were “doing the right thing”.<\/p>\n

The government argues that making commuters tap on and off helps Transport and Main Roads understand how and where commuters are travelling.<\/p>\n

They say this data helps them make better decisions about investment in services and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Better Transport Queensland president Rowan Gray agreed that making commuters tap on and off their services provided “valuable” data to Translink.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rowan Gray says tapping on and off creates valuable data.\u00a0 (ABC Radio Brisbane: Kenji Sato)<\/p>\n

“If we started having less people tap on and off, it would actually make that data less reliable,” he said.<\/p>\n

“On the whole, as a general position for fare evasion, if you’re not paying the 50-cent fares and you can afford to, then absolutely there should be an incentive to make sure that you are paying it.<\/p>\n

“Without enforcement and without fines, there would not be that incentive for people to keep tapping on, tapping off, and providing that really valuable data.”<\/p>\n

The 50-cent fares began as a trial under the former Labor government, while the LNP government has made them permanent.<\/p>\n

The reduced fares cost the government about $300 million a year in lost revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queensland fare evaders have been hit with more than $4.5 million in fines since 50 cent travel began…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[108433,64,63,275346,78708,99,275351,275347,275348,159564,275344,38238,275349,94,51596,701,275345,185602,275350,55730,275352],"class_list":["post-557925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-50-cent-fares","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-public-transport","tag-buses","tag-business","tag-citycat","tag-fare-evasion","tag-fare-warnings","tag-ferries","tag-go-card","tag-public-transport","tag-public-transport-fines","tag-qld","tag-qld-government","tag-queensland","tag-queensland-public-transport","tag-queensland-rail","tag-ticket-inspection","tag-trains","tag-translink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}