Comments on: Ticket inspector mayhem

By: lavelua

lavelua — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:35:22 +0000

While I understand that tram ticket inspectors are “just doing their job” and that they are a necessary presence in Melbourne trams, specifically, where the system relies upon the honesty of passengers (if you are a regular tram passenger its not that hard to remember to get some change) what I object to is the manner and style adopted by many inspectors, who travel in packs, which are intimidating and authoritarian. It is as though they think they are the police and may accordingly adopt the demeanour that goes with that job. There is a real “us and them” mentality, so that one feels - even safe in the knowledge that you have a valid ticket to offer up to inspection - nervous, anxious, dare I say, even fearful. In fairness, some of the hostility that they exude may be in part due to the hostility that passengers project towards them. They are, as I said earlier “just doing their job”. Which is why they travel in groups, for their own safety (”in numbers”) and reassurance.

But what I really object to and find troublling is the apparent need for undercover tram inspectors, who seem to relish that moment when they fling open their bomber jacket/cardigan/jumper to reveal their “badge”, uttering the ominous demand: “can we see your tickets please?”

Why do they have to be “plains-clothed”, do they think they are under-cover policemen? They would argue that it is so that they can travel for several stops “blending in” with other passengers, and observe more efficiently those who get on and get off without validating/purchasing a ticket. The ends, however, - of catching out fare evaders - do not justify the means: the use of totalitarian, fascist, over-the-top scare tactics on their fellow citizens. And it is not clear, even, that more fare evaders are caught by undercover inspectors than by their - by comparison, more upfront - blue uniformed collegues. You can see them coming from a mile off, certainly, but if you have hopped on a tram without the appropriate change you are going to have to face the music just as surely with a uniformed inspector as you would with the plainclothed ones.

We are living with a democracy, but undercover tram conducters cultivate a mindset - both in passengers AND in themselves - which are more akin to totalitarian regimes in which one carries constantly the sense of being under surveillance. It produces fear and legitimises techniques which provoke fear and make them mundane. I’ve seen old ladies become terribly upset at the shock of some overzealous little prig of an undercover conducter demanding loudly out-of-the-blue: where’s your ticket?

Well, where’s your manners?

I think tram inspectors have a tough job to carry it, which needs to be done, and that they are often unfairly on the receiving end of hostility from loutish, lying fare-evaders. But get rid of the undercover tram inspectors, for all our sakes, theirs just as much as ours (the passengers).

By: elfdreaming

elfdreaming — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:17:34 +0000

Don’t buy tickets! Public transport should be free! How can we justify not making PT a free service with all the environmental worries that we have?
I don’t buy tickets on principle.
And don’t say I’m stealing - no, Connex is stealing from our grandchildren - stealing their healthy environment, their good lives…
It’s just plain un-Australian to buy a ticket anyway.

By: CNU

CNU — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:14:56 +0000

What do you think will happen if you fill up petrol at a petrol station, and claim that you do not have the money to pay for the petrol and insist to drive off?

By: Irregular Tram user

Irregular Tram user — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:32:25 +0000

Yesterday I had to travel east along Finders Street to the end of Wellington Parade. Running late, I jumped on a Tram. I purchased a City Saver ticket and validated it. When it turned right at Exhibition street, I had to jump off and run back up to flinders street, get another tram and continue on. Another tram stop into my journey, a number of Inspectors climbed aboard and annpunced they were Ticket Inspectors with Yarra Trams and asked to see tickets. I of course couldn’t find my ticket and panicking that my stop was coming up, asked if we could get off and continue the discussion at the next stop. After getting off and being asked to produce a valid ticket or “document” who i was, I realised that there were 5 people standing around me at the tram stop. I originally thought some of them were passengers waiting for the next tram. After searching through my wallet where I put my ticket for safe keeping, I was unable to produce a valid ticket. I explained that I had changed trams and I must have lost it. Naturally they were not interested. I explained that I was late for my meeting and offered a business card to the inspector and askied him to call me later on so we could resolve the matter. This was refused. Things started to rapidly get out of hand from that point. I noticed that one of them a wioman, was on the mobile explaining what was happening to someone, presumably backup. I told them thay were being unreasonable, their lack of flexabiity annoyed me. Eventually the inspector said that all he was after was some proof of who I was and to show him a drivers license or some form of identification. I again asked him if we could sort this out somehow later as I had a client meeting that I was now well and truly late for. I went to take a step to move around him and and two of them screamed out “You are under arrest”! and with that, grabbed my arms, was right in my face threatening me and twisted me around shoving me backwards so forcibly that I nearly fell over. I resisted so I could stay upright and told them what I thought of their actions. I have never been so humiliated on my life, all over a $1.80 ticket that I could not produce.
During my ordeal at the hands of 5 of these inspectors (2 of them thugs) I discovered that there used to be approx 400 tram conductors before they were phased out. Interestingly there are now over 200 Ticket Inspectors on the payroll. I’ll bet that the Ticket inspectors are paid a lot more money that the poor old conductirs were, and the inspectors travel in packs of 4 or 5 at a time harrassing people over a $1.80 fare! Where is the sense in that.

I used to think that the lowest job in the world was working as a parking inspector, I think we have hit new lows with ticket inspectors on our public transport.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:54:41 +0000

Although I don’t know much about the situation other than what you describe and I’m not a lawyer, I’d suggest that he disputes the fine rather than paying it straight out. The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has some guidelines on how to do this:

If writing a letter doesn’t help, then do write to the Director of Public Transport, then failing that, take it to the Victorian Ombudsman, as more often than not bureaucrats are just there to fob you off. That said, my sister was successful in having a fine reversed purely by writing just one letter.

As for the the new ticketing system, clearly that will only help if you happen to have a smart card with you. It won’t be much use to irregular users. It certainly won’t help fare evasion at all because the only way to check such tickets will be with an electronic reader. It’s anyone’s guess as to how quickly the batteries would run flat.

By: jan

jan — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:38:25 +0000

Re the above post
The Smart Card was in the news today,saying it should be introduced over the next 12 months- it would maybe solve the problem of not having coins for a fare if you had $10 on a card and in your wallet

By: jan

jan — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 04:33:53 +0000

my son had to deliver a car to a caryard and had a $20 note for cab fare home,someone at the car yard asked him if he wanted a lift to the nearest tram stop,so he agreed and before he realised he didn’t have coins for the tram fare, the doors shut and the inspectors were on board,resulting in a $158.00 fine.
Did he have any options here? or does he just have to wear the fine? He had the money to pay just not in the right configuration.
Oh, how I miss conductors

By: AN AUTHORISED OFFICER

AN AUTHORISED OFFICER — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:01:28 +0000

ALL Public Transport Authorised Officers (Ticket Inspectors) are doing a great job, keep up the good work.

By: jeremy

jeremy — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 06:24:01 +0000

Well I think you’ll find that that it’s a bit impractical to perform hide and seek ticket inspections on crowded trains and trams. Firstly because unlike tram conductors where you only had one person to squeeze through the crowds, but instead you have at least three. But also it wouldn’t be too safe because if the crowd felt any apprehension towards the ticket inspectors well there’s no way they’d get out of it. Clearly there’s no substitute for staffing the system properly.

As for the frequencies I agree that they are hopelessly inadequate. The absolute bare minimum frequency where public transport starts to get decent patronage is every 15 minutes. Though people with a car available mostly won’t consider using it unless frequencies are at least 10 minutes. Of course with either of these frequencies though, it’s harder to co-ordinate connecting services and a fair bit of planning work has to go into it. If you can get it down to 5 minutes then no extra work has to go into co-ordination.

By: Mustaine's Woman

Mustaine's Woman — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:49:54 +0000

Why is it that during most peak hours you never see ticket inspectors around? Could it be because they do not like to board crowded trains and trams??

Neither do we, and why should we have to pay for a ticket when we can’t sit down for a long journey?

Have trains and trams every 5 minutes…..especially on the weekends when I’ve found myself at a train station waiting for 30-40 minutes for the next one to arrive.