MySwissAlps.com features ads, commercial and non-commercial July 5 to 13 – Bernese Oberland and Zermatt
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The purpose of the validation procedure is to make sure that the ticket does not get reused and reused and reused.
If you buy it from a ticket machine, it has a date on it. If it gets punched in a proper machine, it gets a date on it. Some conductors punches make specially shaped holes, by the way.
Since the ticket was specifically from ZRH to ZFH ( I imagine) once it was punched, it was not going to get reused. And, the conductors are human, and are easier on tourists than on Swiss kids who try to travel with a ticket that is not valid…typically, out of time time. I’ve seen a few of those “discussions.” ;-).
My guess is that the conductors have run into your situation a few times.
Slowpoke
That doesn’t make much sense to me. Without a time or date on the ticket there is no way to tell when the hole was punched. It could have been an hour ago or a day or a month. Also nothing to prevent me from using it again later and saying the hole had just been punched. If I were to guess, I would say the employee saw we were nervous that our ticket wasn’t correctly validated and he was just trying to make us feel like the ticket was now “ good “. Otherwise I still don’t see how the hole made any difference. But as I said before it’s an oddity but not of much importance. Mark
Hi Marki-
<<“That doesn’t make much sense to me. Without a time or date on the ticket there is no way to tell when the hole was punched.”>>
Certainly true. However, you missed my comment about the shape of punch holes. Those are sometimes unique identifiers for the particular conductor doing the punching
Some conductors’ hand punches mark or stamp a date/ time. I’m guessing that what you got was not in that category.
Perhaps the staff were not terribly worried about a CHF 6,80 ticket and were trying to make an obviously nervous tourist feel comfortable.
In any case, your best chance to get a clear explanation is to write the SBB and ask them to explain.
I’ll stick by my original proposal –
<<“And, the conductors are human, and are easier on tourists than on Swiss kids who try to travel with a ticket that is not valid…My guess is that the conductors have run into your situation a few times.”>>
Do you feel that you looked like you were trying to cheat them out of CHF 6.8 per person?
Slowpoke
Nope, still doesn’t make sense. Even if his punch was somehow special ( actually I think it was just round), it still didn’t indicate when the hole was punched or the ticket bought nor did it impart how long the ticket could be used. Also I’m not sure how the conductor was particularly easier on me as a tourist. I did not put the gum in the machine,just reported it and I asked what I should do. He didn’t seem overly concerned but was nice enough. I guess he could have told me to find another machine but there were none in the adjacent platforms I could see or he could have told me tough luck. In stead he punched my ticket and boarded another train nearby. Was he being easy on a dumb tourist? Well I’m not convinced
Deuce
Advantage Marki
Interesting conversation!
I have a feeling the conductors don’t see much of those tickets anymore (ones that need to be validated after purchase) pretty rare now, hence the lack of orange machines to find and they’d remember punching it earlier for you.
Trains here run mostly on the honor system and its pretty rare that people other than teenagers get busted for riding without a valid ticket – I’m a little surprised that most people here don’t even think of riding without a ticket (I think in Canada its more prevalent) but I could be wrong.
Those tickets are also usually only valid for an hour and the train conductor is probably the only guy checking tickets on the train (sometimes there are two but they check different carriages typically) and their shockingly good at remembering faces if you try to explain someone else already punched the ticket. 🙂
I sat beside a women who gave the conductor a non-validated ticket and she was fined on the spot (you need to find the conductor right after boarding the train if you don’t/can’t validate before boarding. She was Swiss so maybe he was less forgiving? – but the fine was 8chf or something and she paid on the spot.
It’s good to hear everything worked out in the end and all you ended up with was an interesting story. 🙂
Advantage Switzerland!
Hi Lucas –
<<“I have a feeling the conductors don’t see much of those tickets anymore
(ones that need to be validated after purchase) pretty rare now, hence
the lack of orange machines to find and they’d remember punching it
earlier for you.”>>
It has been a few years, but I used to buy supplemental day cards to use with my Halb-tax. I’d get one ticket of light-weight piece of cardboard that had to be validated, When I put it in the orange machine, it bit off a corner, and stamped a date and time. Each of the 6 times I used it, it would nibble off a bit more along one side of the ticket, and stamp another date..
See attached.
Apparently they still exist.
I think they need a machine for validation, but I think that conductors have a punch with a date stamp tha can be used.
Since much of this kind of has become electronic, I’m a bit surprised to find that offer.
I think I recall validating a ticket of some sort on a city bus…..? I know that one can buy Zürich city day cards in advance and then validate them some how.
Slowpoke
Attachments:
<<“Was he being easy on a dumb tourist? Well I’m not convinced”>>
Nor am I. I think he was offering a professional and courteous approach to quickly help out a tourist who was the victim of some dumb vandal who put chewing gum on a validation machine. All that within the broader the context that Lucas has described.
So, even if the act was not technically correct -which I agree was the case – it met the needs of the tourist who was a guest in Switzerland.
My opinion, any way.
Slowpoke
Yes, those multi-passes still exist here as to day cards – I sometimes use them in the summer instead of monthly passes (as I try to walk/bike everywhere when its arm/sunny).
But they aren’t too common and the normal ZVV machines are what you use to validate them – not those orange boxes I believe (though I never tried!). I’ve never seen a machine or driver validate anything on a bus or tram.
The conductor who punched my tickets was not on the same train we were on He was just on a nearby platform waiting for his train to leave. The punch he used was a small metallic handheld one. It looked very small and looked very ordinary. I didn’t pay much attention to the hole it produced but there is no way it included a date or time. If we had seen a conductor on our train I think he would have seen an older couple with 2 small bags who probably looked American with improperly validated tickets with a round hole in it. Although the conductor would have never seen us before, they very well might have just nodded their heads, mumbled something about American tourist, and hopefully let us pass. Mark
Oh I’m sure it would have worked out fine! 🙂
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