Yeah, I read that a few hours ago over breakfast. Seems to me like a BBC reporter got hit with a fine and was having a bit of a whinge, extrapolating his "poor me" attitude to the whole country.
1st class GA, baby. It's the only way to fly. Or ride. Or something.
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It seems to me that Imogen Foulkes has a point. All the cases she mentions, including her own, seem very unfair to the people involved. None of them were fare dodgers, all had an innocent explanation for what had happened.
Saying that, personally I would never ride a train without a valid, stamped if necessary, paper ticket clutched in my hand.
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Some folk bitch on EF, others write blogs, reporters file to their newspapers. In the meantime, trains are still running, people will adapt and then the next inconvenience will have its' five minutes of fame and life will advance nevertheless.
Nothing to read here people, move on, please. The Regionalzug is leaving platform 4, all stations to Ziegelbrücke .......
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Some folk bitch on EF, others write blogs, reporters file to their newspapers. In the meantime, trains are still running, people will adapt and then the next inconvenience will have its' five minutes of fame and life will advance nevertheless.
Nothing to read here people, move on, please. The Regionalzug is leaving platform 4, all stations to Ziegelbrücke .......
There is the pensioner, out for a day with his grandson, who kindly bought both their tickets on his mobile phone, but it turns out you are only allowed one e-ticket per person, so poor old granddad is fined.
don't get this. if there were 2 tickets, one for grandad one for kid, then isn't that one per person? what is the rule?
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Yeah, I read that a few hours ago over breakfast. Seems to me like a BBC reporter got hit with a fine and was having a bit of a whinge, extrapolating his "poor me" attitude to the whole country.
1st class GA, baby. It's the only way to fly. Or ride. Or something.
GA yes (if you don't live in Geneva), but first class? Little spoiled, aren't we?
don't get this. if there were 2 tickets, one for grandad one for kid, then isn't that one per person? what is the rule?
you can actually create an e-ticket from the SBB app (IIRC) for a person other than you. I've done it for The Enemy.
I think they should also have some leeway for those buying e-tickets on the platform and cut some slack. Latency in transaction times mean that some people suffer wrongly.
But it was no secret that no new tickets would be sold on the train. You can still buy a class change onboard.
You'll drag my GA from my dying hand......it makes travel a no-brainer.
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Isn't the rail system constantly running a deficit? Maybe they are trying to shore up the finances without raising prices (you know, like airlines do with all the add-on fees).
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Me neither. If it is technically possible to purchase more tickets from a single device, using the sbb ap, why is it illegal at the same time.
Yeah, sounds like a mistake here. The SBB app has a specific function to allow you to buy tickets for other passengers. At times I've bought 4 tickets for people travelling with me on the same journey, and the ticket inspector just carried on as usual.
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you can actually create an e-ticket from the SBB app (IIRC) for a person other than you. I've done it for The Enemy.
wonder how one would feel if you got fined and declared that one ticket was invalid after buying two?
agree with you that having a few minutes of leeway for tickets bought on trains would be a good thing.
strangely, i asked an inspector if i could buy a class upgrade on the train and was told 'no' (on a train where you can normally not buy tickets on the train).
i guess there may be some differences in attitude. this rankles the british sense of fairness or 'fair play' but i know quite a few swiss and germans who would simply say 'selber schuld' and that you should simply know the rules and follow them.
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I have complete sympathy with the author. He bought a ticket but was still fined. The attitude that many people in Switzerland have of "just pay it" is the reason they can get away with what most countries would call corruption.
I once bought a ticket and had the thing on my mobile phone. It was the first time I had used the train in Switzerland and thought it was cool how you could do that. However, when the inspector came, he said I should also have a paper copy, refused to scan the bar code thing on the phone and forced me to buy a new ticket on the train. It left me feeling cheated and I've avoided using the trains when possible since then.
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wonder how one would feel if you got fined and declared that one ticket was invalid after buying two?
agree with you that having a few minutes of leeway for tickets bought on trains would be a good thing.
strangely, i asked an inspector if i could buy a class upgrade on the train and was told 'no' (on a train where you can normally not buy tickets on the train).
i guess there may be some differences in attitude. this rankles the british sense of fairness or 'fair play' but i know quite a few swiss and germans who would simply say 'selber schuld' and that you should simply know the rules and follow them.
It's clear to me that I had a ticket on my SBB app in the name of someone that was not me - let's be fair, I bought it for someone else, I have a GA But if I had the same name on both tickets, I'd feel silly. But then I know about self-print tickets and how the SBB can be with them.
If the train is stickered with the Eye logo and self-check messages in 4 languages, you can only pay fines on the train I actually bought myself a ticket a few years ago and got a 2nd class one not first - but sat in first until I saw the guy checking tickets. I did of course check my ticket, printed at home, and suddenly saw 2nd class on it. Oops.
So I stood up and approached him and admitted it as well as informing him that I was moving. He let me off.
Some can be complete jobsworths - I was forced to sign my GA by one of them.....it has my picture on and you don't ask me to sign anything so.........it has a thick black squiggle on it. Duh.
However, when the inspector came, he said I should also have a paper copy, refused to scan the bar code thing on the phone and forced me to buy a new ticket on the train. It left me feeling cheated and I've avoided using the trains when possible since then.
Happened to me once, but never since. My conductor used his device to check the validity remotely, yours had an unfortunate attitude.
I suspect this whole paper copy thing was actually a badly expressed wish for convenience on the conductor's side, as the scanner seems to have some trouble reading especially older screens. Otherwise, why provide MMS tickets at all?
About the 90 CHF surcharge / no tickets on train thing in general, I don't doubt many, many tourists will be surprised by this on their first time. How clear are the warnings, especially for someone running from air terminal to platform, already jet-lagged and confused?
Then again, the visitors already subsidizing the railways with double prices, what's a little bit more...
wonder how one would feel if you got fined and declared that one ticket was invalid after buying two?
agree with you that having a few minutes of leeway for tickets bought on trains would be a good thing.
strangely, i asked an inspector if i could buy a class upgrade on the train and was told 'no' (on a train where you can normally not buy tickets on the train).
You can apparently do this on IC/IR but not on R/RE/S/SN.
Neil
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I have complete sympathy with the author. He bought a ticket but was still fined. The attitude that many people in Switzerland have of "just pay it" is the reason they can get away with what most countries would call corruption.
I once bought a ticket and had the thing on my mobile phone. It was the first time I had used the train in Switzerland and thought it was cool how you could do that. However, when the inspector came, he said I should also have a paper copy, refused to scan the bar code thing on the phone and forced me to buy a new ticket on the train. It left me feeling cheated and I've avoided using the trains when possible since then.
There was another thread where people were saying how this system is so much better than an rf tag solution, like the oyster card... how exactly?
Sbb doesn't exactly provide a printing service at the stations for the app - how can they justify demanding a print copy?
There was another thread where people were saying how this system is so much better than an rf tag solution, like the oyster card... how exactly?
Sbb doesn't exactly provide a printing service at the stations for the app - how can they justify demanding a print copy?
they can't and they don't. QR codes are brilliant technology which are very easy to read and read correctly with tolerance for many variables - angles you scan them at, code upside down, etc.
You may be required to show ID to support the name on the ticket.
wonder how one would feel if you got fined and declared that one ticket was invalid after buying two?
agree with you that having a few minutes of leeway for tickets bought on trains would be a good thing.
Speaking of leeway.
I bought return tickets Geneva Milan last year and didn't bother checking the travel date when the nice lady at the counter gave them to me. Upon boarding the train my reserved seat was already occupied so after a bit of to and fro it transpired that I was on the good train but a week too late.
Lo and behold I meekly exposed my plight to the conductor when she showed up around Montreux and shock! horror! she kindly allowed me to purchase a Montreux - Milan ticket sans fine nor surcharge.
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But if I had the same name on both tickets, I'd feel silly. But then I know about self-print tickets and how the SBB can be with them.
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