October has begun and I have the September’s results for my train travels. Make sure to read part 1 of this story to learn why I am keeping track of the number of times my train ticket is checked.
For the month of September I traveled on the train a total of 42 times and had my ticket checked only 15 times. Remember that a one way ticket is $2.25 USD and a monthly pass is $60.00 USD. If I only bought one way passes for the times I was checked I would have saved $26.25 USD.
So it seems that buying a monthly pass is turning out to be a bad idea.
But…are there any penalties for not having a ticket on board? So if they caught you would you have to pay a penalty fee or the standard $2.25?
The way I would do it is buy a one way ticket and keep it in my wallet. They don’t expire so as long as I keep it in my wallet I have a ticket in case they check. When they check, I take it out, get it checked, and go buy another one. That way, I am only paying for the times when I get checked. The downside is that I have to go the ticket machine a lot.
Could you just buy two or three one way tickets? That way you go to the ticket machine once and you’re covered for at least three times.
The train companies must be losing a fair bit of money if its that easy to get round the system.
Sounds like 2 solutions from their perspective (and it will reduce subsidies and hence your taxes 🙂 )
1) Put a date on the one-way ticket sold from the machine (easiest)
2) Build more ticket barriers