We are currently visiting my family in Melbourne for Christmas. Yesterday we went with my brother and his family into the city by train to see various Christmas displays and attend Mass at St Francis Church.
We parked at the station and I asked the ticket seller "What is the best way for my family to catch the train to Melbourne?"
He quickly got out his hand calculator and worked out 7 tickets at $2.50 each.
"Thanks," I said and we boarded the train.
Once we arrived at Melbourne we put our tickets in the machine and were informed "Ticket Not Validated"
Perplexed, we approached a ticket inspector and asked, "The machine says our tickets aren't validated."
"Your tickets must be validated." he cleverly (yet cheerfully) replied.
"We purchased them from the ticket booth at the station and boarded the train," we responded.
"Didn't you validate them?"
"No."
"Did you read the back of the ticket?"
"Do you mean this fine print?" I answered (See the attached picture)
"See?" he pointed, "the ticket must be validated."
"Wouldn't they be valid when I purchased them?"
"No."
"He didn't tell us the tickets he sold us weren't valid."
"He doesn't have to."
"Well, we are from out of town and our telepathy has failed us. Now what do we do?"
"You're lucky the ticket inspectors didn't catch you. You would have faced fines of $160 per ticket."
"Is this how you treat all tourists who fail this initial test?"
He then let us through and validated the tickets, saving us from the dire threat of apprehension by the ticket authorities!
We parked at the station and I asked the ticket seller "What is the best way for my family to catch the train to Melbourne?"
He quickly got out his hand calculator and worked out 7 tickets at $2.50 each.
"Thanks," I said and we boarded the train.
Once we arrived at Melbourne we put our tickets in the machine and were informed "Ticket Not Validated"
Perplexed, we approached a ticket inspector and asked, "The machine says our tickets aren't validated."
"Your tickets must be validated." he cleverly (yet cheerfully) replied.
"We purchased them from the ticket booth at the station and boarded the train," we responded.
"Didn't you validate them?"
"No."
"Did you read the back of the ticket?"
"Do you mean this fine print?" I answered (See the attached picture)
"See?" he pointed, "the ticket must be validated."
"Wouldn't they be valid when I purchased them?"
"No."
"He didn't tell us the tickets he sold us weren't valid."
"He doesn't have to."
"Well, we are from out of town and our telepathy has failed us. Now what do we do?"
"You're lucky the ticket inspectors didn't catch you. You would have faced fines of $160 per ticket."
"Is this how you treat all tourists who fail this initial test?"
He then let us through and validated the tickets, saving us from the dire threat of apprehension by the ticket authorities!
1 comment:
That happened to me in Germany.
I had the advantage of being American. Now, I will admit that when the ticket inspector looked at my unvalidated ticket and told me I was in violation and that I was going to be fined, I understood perfectly well what he said. But I didn't mean to ride without a validated ticket. I honestly didn't know it needed to be validated.
And the easiest thing seemed to be to say,
"I'm sorry, what?"
No further explanation was needed. He just validated the ticket, handed it to me and told me in his broken English to have a nice trip.
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