Bus travel 'over-staging' amounts recovered: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/03067
Date received: 21 December 2017
Date responded: 24 January 2018

Information requested

1. That £58.83 is the total amount recovered for all over staging in year 2016/17 and £45 is the total amount recovered to date for year 2017/18?

2. If you have any other means or processes in place for identifying actual or estimated over staging other than those identified by passengers? If the answer is yes, can you advise on the total amounts deducted from bus companies for over staging excluding the amounts advised in your previous reply?

Response

1. Yes, I can confirm that in relation to complaints received from members of the public, the amount of £58.83 was the total amount recovered for over staging in regards to year 2016/17, and the amount of £45 was the total amount recovered to date for year 2017/18.

2. We have a number of methods of identifying over staging other than those identified by passengers, but due to the volumes of data we deal with, these methods are carried out at an aggregated level within our validation process and focus on a range of potential anomalies, including over staging. These validation techniques do not solely address over staging in isolation and we are therefore unable to report a figure deducted in relation to this specifically.

As you know from previous correspondence we also have a survey programme, and within this we do record over staging separately. The data collected from operators is deemed a representative sample and is extrapolated to cover more than just the journeys we interview on. The current method of analysing and deducting monies has been in operation since 1st April 2017 and the total figure deducted in relation to over staging from 1st April 2017 to 12th November 2017 is £6,310.14.

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