Look, I like trains. I really like trains. But I hate railway managers with a passion. They just don't understand their business at all.

The other day, I took a train to Prčice. And I did not buy a ticket. Not because I couldn't but because I didn't want to. Why? I'll tell you in a while. But anyway, I didn't buy a ticket. Whenever I mention that, some people will always go all "but that's wrong, you're stealing from the railways!" Reality check, buddy: I'm not. I'm not stealing anything. The train is still there, it has its schedule it has to follow, and it doesn't care whether I'm on board or not. And it's not like I'm taking anything off the train with me, right? From the point of view of the railway, it's like I haven't even been there, there's no loss whatsoever. And I really needed to get to Prčice, too, so why shouldn't I take this train when it's there?

But anyway, why don't I buy tickets? I would have, but I don't, for one simple reason: ticket inspectors. Man, I hate ticket inspectors. You know what they do? They treat paying customers like criminals. I'm on a train, mate, why do you need to see my ticket? Of course I have one, otherwise I wouldn't be on a train, dimwit! And what's worse, even if you buy an annual pass, hell, even a lifetime pass if such things existed, they'd still check your bloody ticket every single time you ride on a train. That's just unacceptable. It's an intrusion into my privacy, that's what it is.

So yeah. Until the railways start operating strictly on an honour-based system, I'm not buying a train ticket. If you do not listen to your customers and respect your customers, you simply don't deserve their money. End of story.

Say, this isn't about trains, is it? You're not one of those sicko pervs that wants to do their mother, are you?

Is this a DRM/piracy allegory?

Damnyou Railway Managers, you say? ;)

here sometimes the inspectors beat you up when you dont have a ticket.
be glad you still have tickets though here we got a card which you have to check in and out with through a portal and prices have increased alot plus the system isnt always fucntioning properly nevermind what they do with your privacy knowing every place you been. yet they cant make the trains ride with just 2 inch of snow.

What if you ride the train without a ticket just to see if you like it? Surely you shouldn't have to pay if you didn't enjoy the trip.

Every time I fill up my car I have to drive all the way to the train station with my receipt to prove that I actually buy fuel and haven't been siphoning from neighbours. I mean, sure I hate fuel thieves and I support action against them in principle, but the time and travel costs involved here are crippling. The cure is worse than the disease. Damn railway managers.

I don't get it.

As a train aficionado I feel it is my responsibility to ride on as many trains as possible.

I don't need to ride all of them, I just want to know as much as I can about trains. It's my passion and I doubt you don't know someone else who is as passionate about a topic to want to know as much as possible about it. That said, I'm not going to pay for a crappy train ride because I considered it relevant for the medium. Long distance trains really are good examples, I want to know what 20+ millions of passengers are being feed about world politics and modern life, but the trains are awful (I don't ride in the sleeping compartments though), I prefer to save that money and spend it in things like steam trains that I may not even ride because I think they deserve it better.

I understand that you consider me a retard. After all these years talking in train forums, I have realized that most people cannot understand the medium outside of a business framework. You'll be amazed at the amount of conversations that end when someone says the magical words: "it's a business" or "they do that because they want to make money". That is also why people does not understand my concept of responsibility, because they probably pays for tickets because they has to, not because they wants to, as is my case. For me, it's more than a business, so it's perfectly natural to sneak on the trains I'm interested in (for varied reasons) and put my money into the trains (that I may or may not ride at all) that I think are taking the medium forward in positive ways

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTVDOx35FNg&feature=related
:)

A friend of mine is writing his thesis about public transportation. If everybody in Germany would pay a monthly fee of 25€, you could make the whole public transportation (apart from high speed trains) free of use for everybody.

What really annoys me is that there's a ticket inspector at each and every door into the train. And that they don't believe that I bought the monthly pass I'm holding, but phone into the main office to ask if it's okay to allow me on the train. And if nobody at the main office answers the phone, they just don't let anybody into the train, even though there's nothing wrong with the train itself.

Then there's the fact that I might occasionally take a different train than my usual. My pass covers the zones I travel in, so it shouldn't be a problem, but once I've taken three different trains to work, they require me to buy a new pass.

So at some point you'll be heading to an airport to try this on a flight somewhere ?

But with these new chip-based cards, they just touch your pass on the reader and that's it. That's quite fast and convenient, I think. But yeah, you're right that if the authentication database goes offline, it causes needless complications.

And yes, tying your pass to a single train is just silly.

Depends where you are. I've found flights in China to be far more pleasant all around than flights in the US.