Public transit here requires a ticket, of course. These can be purchased in increments from as short as one ride and up to ten; and for time periods as short as 24 hours up to one year. The brilliant thing is that passes for time periods include rides on every type of transport: subway, train, surface tram, and bus (within the Vienna area). There is never any "swipe in" or validation process ... the whole thing is on the honor system.
Except for the random checks, that is. Today, a man in his thirties wearing a plaid shirt and jeans was standing on the subway train I rode. After the subway started, he revealed a badge from around his neck and proceeded to ask everyone to please show their tickets. A colleague of his, a woman in her forties wearing a sweater over a polo shirt with jeans, worked the other end of the car. Failure to have a ticket results in a fine that's more expensive than a monthly pass, so there's really no reason not to have a ticket in the event that you get caught. This time, everybody in our car was good, so the plainclothes officers departed the car at the next station and probably went on to inspect another subway.
It sounds like the system has a very high success rate: people are generally happy to pay for their passes and don't want to try and cheat the system; whether its from fear of getting caught and paying a fine, or their general disinterest in cheating, I don't know. I wonder, though, if they'd have an even higher success rate if Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones ran the inspection service :)
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| No Ticket!!! |
... and, given the conclusion of that scene, that brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Calling Shotgun!"
yes I know the biplane had a machine gun and not a shotgun ... but the pun still works, okay? leave me alone...
