The Metropolitan Transport Authority (ATM) of Barcelona issues a warning: if you use your child’s T-16 transport card and get caught, the minor will lose free public transport for three years. The ATM reminded this on Tuesday in a statement explaining that it has launched a campaign against this fraud coinciding with the start of the school year. The T-16 allows children in Barcelona to travel free on metro, buses, and trains from ages four to sixteen. Due to fraudulent use of this pass by adults, 4,000 cards were blocked for three years just last year.
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The campaign aims to raise awareness among adults that if they commit fraud, they will end up paying double: they with a fine and their children losing free public transport use. “Using a child’s T-16 to save the cost of a ticket can end up having consequences for the one least at fault” is the message of the new campaign. The ATM is made up of the Generalitat, the Barcelona City Council, and the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (which includes the Catalan capital and the 35 surrounding municipalities).
“To convey the message, the campaign uses humor and irony to highlight a behavior often seen as mere cunning, but which harms both the public transport system and the minor beneficiary of the pass,” the statement explains. Among the messages is this one: “We can’t stop you from wearing a hooded sweatshirt at 40, but we can stop you from traveling with the T-1.”
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Currently, there are more than 400,000 active T-16 cards in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. “It is a pass that costs the system about 25 million euros a year,” the ATM recalls. The pass is personal and non-transferable, they add.
The transport authority reminds that fraud in the use of the T-16 by adults generates a “significant administrative burden.” Because more than half of those sanctioned file appeals to avoid losing the pass, “usually without providing any evidence that disproves the established facts.” The result of the appeals is rejection in more than 95% of cases, which does not prevent the individual review of each case, with the work this entails for the T-Mobilitat center support teams.
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