Bengaluru: Crafty passengers cheat tech to ride on Metro for free

A few commuters are managing to beat the automated sensor-based turnstiles through ‘tailgating’.

BENGALURU: With ticketless travel on Namma Metro appearing impossible due to the automated sensor-based turnstiles before the entry to train platforms, a few commuters are managing to beat the system through ‘tailgating’. Simply put, it is a method of hitchhiking onto another person’s ticket by rushing along with a genuine ticket holder through the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates inside the Metro station.

According to an eyewitness, three passengers managed to walk through one of the AFC gates using one Metro card last Wednesday around 10 pm. Though they escaped notice there, they were caught at the station where they alighted and were each fined Rs 200 plus the ticket fare. By tracing the route using the sensor inside the token, it was learnt that they boarded the train at Vidhana Soudha Metro station resulting in the security guards there getting pulled up.

An official in the Operations department told The New Indian Express that tailgating takes place on and off. “At Kempe Gowda Metro station, we get an average of two tailgaters each month. Since security staffers are often around the AFC gates, these individuals make it a point to do such acts when the staff change their shift and there is no one around,” he said. “The gate usually closes after 20 seconds and those who study the system carefully indulge in such malpractice,” the official added.  

Not everyone though is considered guilty of it, the official added. “Some are genuine commuters who do not know how to use the token and rush along with another. We have fined commuters who indulged in it as ticketless travel but have taken care to fine only those who deliberately cheat,” he explained. 

Asked about it, A S Shankar, Executive Director, Operations and Maintenance, BMRCL, said, “The sensor treats anyone passing through its gate as an object. If two people huddle together and pass off as one object, nothing can be done about it unless someone at the spot notices it.” The official said the sensor could be fine tuned so that it can close quicker but this could put others to harm. “A pregnant woman walking or a parent taking a kid below a three-feet height along may get caught.”