On the new Angers trolley, one travel out of 10 is unpaid

The Angers medias reavealed that week an unpleasant behaviour of some Angers users of buses and tramway. The cost of the travels without ticket represent about 400 000 € per year. That figure is the result of a calculation of Keolis, the company which runs the collective transportation system of the city and, which, curiously, does not mention that news on its website. That cost would be equivalent to 3.5% of the travels but, in the trolley, the rate of fraud soars to 10%. 

At the beginning of the year, the representative in charge of the tramway at Alm, Luc Belot, stated that the new network was a success. Lauched at the same time of the the first trolley line, the number of travels in the new buses network and trolley was of 119 000 per day (in that figure, 31 000 for the tram). "The objective is to reach 35 000 travels per day on the trolley line. 31 000 is yet a very good result", he said. So 3 100 travels per day are not paid in the tram.


The formality to board on the tram are so easy and so automatic that it is very simple to travel without a ticket. Because there are no gates to cross before boarding in the tramway where the driver is isolated in a cabin (but how to do differently?), it is vulnerable and rests on honesty and trust. At the same time, the sensibility of the sensors set-up in the carriages is so sharp that a traveller staying with his ticket in front of a device doesn't realize he is debited each time he stands close to these sensors. The honesty is not rewarded. That cannot occur to people without tiket!