NTA surveyors on DARTS recently

Because it shows actual tag on data, versus the potentially inaccurate - deliberately or confusion based - data that someone will give when spoken to.

They are often on buses aswel

Something else the NTA need to know the % of. Irish Rail have would have a service level agreement for the RPU, they can judge its effectiveness against the equivalent on Luas and indeed on buses - they do still do the occasional check there I believe.

That said, I've had Irish Rail RPU occasionally in the past few years, Luas checks quite a bit and Dublin Bus checks never. The main thing they used to catch was people paying for the shortest fare and staying on longer; that's all but dead now with the short trip cash fare being the same price as the full trip Leap anyway.

I've been checked a few times on buses. I believe DB set up panels of drivers to do ticket checks alongside Inspectors a while back not sure if that's still happening.

I can't see why the NTA can't provide their own dedicated revenue protection unit operating across bus, rail and Luas. TFL do this in London and don't just leave up to the operators after all its the NTA's money not the operators at the end of the day.

Irish Rail has a lost revenue target, so basically a set % of customers not paying.

NTA audit this by going out on the trains and performing surveys, this has been ongoing on the Luas for years. This also doubles as a customer satisfaction and demographic/purpose of trip analysis

Bulk of demand and origin destination is now done directly from leap card data, no need to survey for it

So the NTA would fine the operator but not provide any extra funding for revenue protection staff.