Decriminalization of Fare Evasion in Hessian Cities: A Survey by FAZ

WIf you are caught on buses, trams or subways without a ticket, you will still have to face criminal charges in most Hessian cities. A survey by the FAZ has shown that apparently no major municipality wants to follow the example of the state capital. There, the ruling alliance of the Greens, SPD, Left and Volt recently decided that fare evaders caught on the buses of the municipal bus company would no longer be prosecuted.

In the opinion of the Wiesbaden town hall coalition, it is sufficient as a “punishment” if such misconduct is punished with the nationwide uniform “increased transport fee” of 60 euros. This is different in Frankfurt, Offenbach, Darmstadt, Hanau, Gießen, Marburg, Fulda and Kassel, where you only risk being charged after driving several times without a ticket.

In Offenbach, for example, the OVB transport company says it monitors “consistently and continuously”. The two companies responsible for the controls also filed criminal charges if there was no ticket. There are no plans to change this approach. According to an OVB spokesman, 2,305 people were found without a ticket in the city last year. This year there were around 1,500 from January to August; Extrapolated, that would be around 2,700 by the end of the year.

“We adhere to applicable law and implement it”

Hanauer Straßenbahn GmbH (HSB) will continue to punish driving without a valid ticket in the future. This year, the HSB expects around 2,000 cases in which passengers without a ticket will be checked. The number is down compared to previous years, says a spokesman. There is no clear reason for this. However, there is the assumption that the introduction of the Deutschlandticket had a positive effect on the number of passengers with valid tickets.

In Frankfurt, where between 8,000 and 9,000 people are caught without a ticket every year, the Left Party in particular is calling for fare evasion to no longer be punished as a crime. However, the head of the mobility department, Wolfgang Siefert (The Greens), does not believe in Frankfurt’s pioneering role in decriminalizing driving without a ticket. He would rather wait for developments at the federal political level, he said at the most recent meeting of the city council’s transport committee.

In Berlin, for example, the SPD is calling for the offense of obtaining benefits by fraud to be deleted from the criminal code without replacement. According to the Frankfurt Left-wing city councilor Daniela Mehler-Würzbach, 87 percent of the reports of fare evasion in Frankfurt affect the unemployed and 15 percent of the homeless. This is a “very vulnerable group of those affected”.