I’ve lived in LA all of my life, and I use public transportation (commuter rail and subways) every weekday. Out here, both of those work on the honor system. You purchase your ticket at an electronic kiosk and keep it on you. At random times, sheriffs, uniformed transit authority personnel or, in the case of our commuter rail service, the conductor may approach you and have you show your ticket. These random requests can take place both on the train/subway and at the station exits. And, of course, you’d be ticketed if you didn’t have valid fare. I believe the fine is just over $200 per infraction in all cases.
The only other major city I’ve been to recently enough to recall how the system worked was D.C., which had turnstyle devices so that there was no way to get through unless you fed it a valid ticket, both coming and going.
So I’m just curious about how other cities do it. Please share:
What city you’re from/in or have experience with;
How fares are checked and by whom, and;
Any personal feelings you have about any method being better than any others.
For buses, you have to pay your fare to the driver (or show a valid bus pass or transfer ticket).
Fares are on the “honor system” for the LRT (light rail train), subject to random checks by inspectors. The fine for fare evasion is $110.
Sometimes during large sporting events when there’s hundreds or thousands of people exiting the stadium/area, they’ll have staff at the train station entrances checking everyone’s tickets.
Boston: turnstiles; ticket required only to enter, not exit. Nobody checks tickets or cards once you’re past the turnstile. On the commuter rail, you show your monthly pass or one-ride ticket or you buy a ticket from the conductor. On buses you can only enter the front door and have to pay upon entering. Nothing required to exit.
New York: same.
Paris: ticket required to enter and exit but many, many people jump the turnstile right in front of the police and nobody cares. Many people stand there and wait for someone to go in and they scoot right in back of you. You have to hold your ticket during the ride and there are a fair number of checks and if you don’t have a ticket, it’s a hefty fine. On buses I used to ride for hours without paying, or on one ticket, which you are not supposed to do - you have to buy again after a certain number of zones but nobody checks. Edit: nobody checks to make sure you’re buying upon surpassing the allowed number of zones. Sometimes the police do board and check to see if you have a ticket at all.
London: ticket required to enter and I think to exit but can’t remember.
Chicago: I believe it’s ticket to enter, nothing required to exit.
I just heard about the LA system during an NPR story a week or so ago. I was very surprised they do it that way.
For the trains in Sydney the major stations have barriers that require a ticket to gain entry/exit. At smaller stations it’s an honour system. For the buses you can either pay the driver or use various pre-paid tickets. But there’s still an element of the honour system because nobody automatically checks to see that you travel no further than the distance for which you’ve paid.
There are random checks on both trains and buses by transport officers. They don’t worry me particularly because I always have a ticket.
Re Boston buses, I didn’t mean you had to actually “pay” upon entering: you have to either pay or swipe your pre-paid card/monthly pass. Just to clarify in case my sentence confused anyone.
On the Boston commuter rail the conductors sometimes don’t make it around to all the cars to check tickets or sell them, so you might get a free ride.
Chicago suburban commuter train system (Metra): Buy a ticket at the station (or not), and board. At some point during the trip the conductors move through the cars and check tickets for everyone. If you do not have a ticket, you tell them what stop you boarded at and pay on the spot, typically with an extra small fee tacked on. There is some leeway for “gaming” the system but with regular travelers, the conductors tend to recognize them, where they get on, etc.
In Seoul you need a ticket to both enter and exit, although sometimes it’s so crowded that you can hop the turnstiles and not get caught. Nowadays most people use transit cards instead of the paper tickets. The fare price depends on the distance you travel, and if you try to cheat the turnstiles scream at you. It’s a pretty good system.
Rome was fucking insane. You are supposed to have a ticket on you, but there are no turnstiles - like the OP describes - so it is an honor system. If you are picked for a random check and don’t have a ticket you are screwed. I heard the police tend to target tourists, but either I was lucky or didn’t look like a tourist (hah, yeah right) - I never was asked to produce a ticket. I carried one around all the time anyway.
I used to buy the 12-ride pass (because I wasn’t using the commuter rail every day), which not only gave you a ticket when and if they checked, but often the punch didn’t go through all the way, or left the chad hanging, so you could push it back into place. I think I’ve gotten 3 tickets out of 1 space on the pass. They’re supposed to expire after 180 days, but no one ever checks that.
Here, on the light rail that runs from West New York (in New Jersey, despite its name) and through Hoboken and Jersey City and on to Bayonne, it’s a spot-checked honor system. You buy your ticket at a machine, then time-stamp it (it’s valid for 90 minutes), then keep it with you until you’re off the station property.
Spot checks are done by New Jersey Transit fare inspectors, NJ Transit cops, and, sometimes, state troopers.
I’ve heard people say that the fine for evasion is around $100, but I’m not sure, as I’ve never received a ticket.
(Interestingly enough, you’d be surprised at how many criminals the NJ Transit cops catch just by doing spot checks for tickets. It’s like, dumbass, if you’re engaged in illegal activity–usually possession of illegal drugs–or if you’re already intimate with the criminal justice system and are evading a warrant, don’t you think it’d be a good idea to draw as little attention to yourself as is possible, and just spend the $1.85 for a ticket? DUH!)
I don’t have strong feelings for one method over another. I mean, sure, you might get lucky (many times, as a matter of fact) and manage to successfully evade the fare with the honor system, but if you’re someone with a highly-developed aversion to drama and embarrassment (like me), you’re going to buy a ticket every time and not take the risk.
Oh, and on the PATH (Port Authority Trans-Hudson) train that runs between NJ and New York City, you need a ticket to get through the turnstile, but not to exit.
Munich, Berlin, Nuremburg, Vienna and Prague were all on the honor system, with spot checks. In some of them, you could buy strips of tickets in advance and at the station entrance or on the trolleys were clocks that would stamp the time on the ticket and it was good for 90 minutes (I think). For two-zone trips, fold over two tabs on the ticket and stamp it.
In Toronto, on the TTC, the main local transit, it’s generally pay on entry for buses, subways and streetcars, however, some of the streetcars are Proof-of-Payment honour systems type deals some of the time.
The intercity commuter system, GO Transit, checks fares, transfers, passes on buses, but the trains are spot-checked honour system.
Bay Area, California - Turnstiles, both ways, using value-added thick plasticine-paper tickets
Hungary - Much abused honor system, according to the film Kontroll.
I have much more experience with turnstiles but they still seem better. It would probably be cheaper to have everything controlled by machines than pay full-time checkers, but I can understand why areas don’t change and they might be patronage jobs.
From the customer standpoint, it really doesn’t matter much, although I would rather not have to hunt for my ticket in all my pockets upon request.
I should add to LA’s description since other people have brought this up – the spot checks are pretty rare.
On the subway, I only ride for a distance of three stops every day. I get checked exiting in downtown maybe two or three times a month. Sheriffs deputies actually boarding the train and checking my ticket while in transit happens to me maybe once or twice a year, seriously.
On the commuter rail (Metrolink), I probably get checked one to three times per month. But I’m only on the train for about 35 minutes each way every day. I think that the conductor is supposed to make a check on every car at least once during the length of the route, but I can’t swear to that.
The Metrolink leaving out of Lancaster/Palmdale never failed to have a ticket check every morning when I was taking it to work. I am guessing they check here more often because a ticket to Union Station is expensive - $20 round, I think. A lot of people tried to hop on for free, or would get a 10-ride pass and try to get 20 out of it. Usually the conductor would let the latter go, as long as he either signed for it or he would let the passenger get out at the next stop to stamp it.
Also, the check usually happened between Palmdale and Acton - a 30 minute stretch with no stops. I saw a lot of people car-hopping to evade ticket checks. Kind of annoying on a 1 hour train ride at 5 am and you’re trying to get some damn shuteye. I am sure some attempts were successful and some were not.
The central railway station in town has turnstiles, you have to check your ticket going in or out. So you have to have a valid ticket. But every other train station in the city has no barriers, so it’s the honour system.
You buys your ticket, validate it at the machine at the door then go where you want to.
On the buses if you have purchased a ticket before you validate it at the door, or you buy one from the driver and validate it.
On trams, you purchase your ticket before you get on & validate it upon boarding, or buy one from the conductor. The tram in Adelaide has a free section from the train station to the southern border of the city proper, no ticket required in that area.
The Adelaide metro works on a centralised ticketing system. Which is to say tickets are the same for buses, trains and trams. Doesn’t matter where you buy it, you can use it anywhere in the city.
There’s two main types of ticket. 2 section, which allows you to go a certain number of stops with no transfers, or standard which once validated allows travel anywhere within the Adelaide metro area, with unlimited transfers for a 2 hour period. A 2 section ticket costs about 1/2 of what a standard ticket costs, and is useful for areas where you only have to catch the bus a short way. Anything more than about two or three stops and it’s better to get a standard ticket.