Victoria Legal Aid

Common public transport offences

Public transport offences relate to ticketing and behaviour on or near buses, trains and trams.

Failure to produce a valid ticket

This means that an authorised officer or a police officer says that they asked you to produce a valid ticket and you were unable or refused to do so. The authorised officer can still ask to see your ticket after you have left the paid ticketing area.

Failure to produce evidence of concession

If you are travelling using a concession ticket, you must be able to produce evidence that you are entitled to a concession.

It is not a valid excuse to say that you have a concession card but you did not have it with you. It is also not an excuse if you thought you could use your student card as evidence of concession.

The only cards accepted as evidence of concessionExternal Link are:

  • Health Care Card
  • Pensioner Card
  • Victorian Public Transport Student Concession Card
  • Victorian Seniors Card
  • Department of Veterans' Affairs Gold or White Card.

If an authorised officer or a police officer asks you to give your name and address you must do so. The magistrate can still find you guilty of this offence if you eventually gave your name and address but at the start refused to do so.

You may be charged with this offence if an authorised officer believes on reasonable grounds that you committed an offence and when they asked for your name and/or address you did not give one, or gave a false one.

Prohibited language or behaviour on public transport

While using public transport it is an offence to:

  • use language that is indecent, obscene, offensive or threatening
  • behave in an obscene, offensive, threatening, disorderly or riotous manner.

Whether your language or behaviour is indecent, obscene, offensive, threatening, disorderly or riotous depends on whether ordinary members of the public would have found it to be so.

Placing feet on furniture

This means that an authorised officer or a police officer says that you placed your feet on the seat or another part of the train, tram or bus other than the floor. It doesn’t make a difference if you did not have your feet on the fabric part of the seat. It is an offence for your feet to be on anything other than the floor.

Smoking on public transport

It is an offence to:

  • smoke in a train, tram or bus
  • smoke in a covered area of a train station, bus shelter or tram stop.

Disclaimer: The material in this print-out relates to the law as it applies in the state of Victoria. It is intended as a general guide only. Readers should not act on the basis of any material in this print-out without getting legal advice about their own particular situations. Victoria Legal Aid disclaims any liability howsoever caused to any person in respect of any action taken in reliance on the contents of the publication.

We help Victorians with their legal problems and represent those who need it most. Find legal answers, chat with us online, or call us. You can speak to us in English or ask for an interpreter. You can also find more legal information at www.legalaid.vic.gov.au

Reviewed 07 March 2022

In this section