£2k in fines to non-paying bus users
Bus passengers have been fined more than £2,000 in Sandwell for not having valid tickets as part of a crackdown on crime in the borough.
A total of 43 buses were checked and 57 passengers received fines totalling more than £2,000 for no valid tickets.
It is part of Safer 6, a six-week police and council campaign which covers Oldbury, West Bromwich, Smethwick, Rowley Regis, Tipton and Wednesbury.
In its sixth week, which had a special focus on Smethwick, council leader Darren Cooper joined the operation on buses with police and Network West Midlands officers.
Jack Kelly, spokesman for National Express, said: "Over the last few years we've doubled our ticket inspectors across the region.
"They are out all day every working hard to ensure every one who uses a bus is paying for it. Last year we checked around 1.2 million tickets and anybody who didn't have one was issued with a fine.
"We try and look at it from a customer's point of view, as everyone should be paying the fair to use the bus. We try and do as much as we can with the the resources we have and will continue to crack down on ticket dodgers."
In October a survey revealed the number of people using the bus in the West Midlands hit a 30-year low.
Despite an increase in London, the number travelling by bus in the West Midlands has plummeted.
In the West Midlands numbers dropped from 74.4m journeys in 2009/10 to 63.3m in 2014/15.
