One example of how you can incur a fine for schwarzfahren even as a local:
I commute by rail in southwestern Germany. Since the beginning of the Corona pandemic I have been able to work from home pretty often, so I have cancelled my yearly ticket and now buy a ticket on my phone every day that I do commute.
In the three months June-August 2022 Germany has done a grand public transport experiment, as an emergency measure to reduce imports of Russian oil: you could use all public transport (excluding long distance rail but including arbitraily long trips on regional trains) by buying a 9-Euro-Ticket, at 9 € for a whole month. Of course millions of people took this up (52 million tickets sold) - not only commuters but also people who made touristic trips.
My experience as a commuter: trains were significantly more crowded; ticket inspectors continued to inspect tickets which was not very onerous - everyone just showed the 9-Euro-Ticket.
Come September the 9-Euro-Ticket scheme was at an end (for the time being - a future scheme is being negotiated between federal and state governments).
The first time in September I used my regular train I forgot that we had been expelled from 9-Euro-Ticket paradise. I was promptly controlled and now I am 60 € (the standard fine) the poorer.
Oh sorry, you meant “old rule” in the sens that it was no more in use.
It was a rule in the time when there was way less cars on the road. It stayed on the Etoile because otherwiseno one could enter the roundabout…
Whereas i was comparing it to typical train security, which is comparable to “standing in a public square” security. That is, yeah, there are some cops wandering around who might question you if you do something threatening or extremely unusual, but you can expect to have zero interaction with “security” boarding and riding the train.
It was 15 years ago the last time we were in Italy, riding the trains between Florence and Pisa and Rome. Rick Steve’s guidebooks helped us figure out the intricacies of the validation system used in Italy.
I was fascinated by the flip-card style display boards, like used in the Pisa station, similar to this one in the Paris Train station. The rest of my family wanted to keep walking, but I made them wait several minutes just to watch - and listen - to the display being updated. I hope they’re still in use.
We got asked for tickets on the Frecchia trains- possibly because we were in first class.
On the local that we took from Milan to Lecco (and it continued past Lecco) the conductor reached our car (first class again) just as we reached the Lecco station and we were getting off. A friendly local assured us that we could just get off and ignore the conductor, so we did.
Typically there’s an extra fee when buying a ticket from the conductor (guard in the UK), but that’s waived if the passenger boarded at a station without ticketing facilities. It won’t discourage everyone, but that’s one way to deal with it.
When I was in Paris, some of the cars on the Paris metro had doors that didn’t open automatically. You had to unlatch them if you wanted out, and they would spring open. (They closed automatically… slowly.)
This was a little odd to see at first, but after watching people do it, I got used to it, and it became fun to unlatch them.
And the trick was to turn the handle as the train entered the station, which would open the door so that you could get off while the train was still slowing down - and pretend you were a real Parisian.
Is that really still possible? I haven’t been to Paris for 35 years, but the trains in Germany that you have to manually open have buttons that only react if the train has already come to a total stop.
There are still some lines with the old rolling stock. I’m fairly sure I did it in April when I was there (and it may even be that the slightly newer stock with push buttons to open also allow it to happen, but I’m not entirely sure)
I was in Germany this spring. Every single train we rode, someone checked our tickets. And because we bought tickets online and didn’t have a physical ticket, just a QR code and receipt, they wanted to see ID to make sure we were who was listed on the ticket.
The Eurostar service between London and Paris does not inspect tickets on the train. You present your ticket to the automatic reader, it scans it and lets you in. There is no check at the other end.
If you have a ticket you cannot use, you can sell it to someone else who can use it. There are websites dedicated to putting buyers and sellers in touch with each other.
The customs and immigration services at each end are interested in passports and visas not train tickets.
I have found these second hand tickets to be very convenient for last minute trips to Paris when the cheap tickets are sold out. Regular travellers buy up lots of tickets at the lowest prices and sell those they find they later do not need. Eurostar have already made their sale, so they are not out of pocket.
This secondhand train ticket market is very popular in France.