Recently, a 72 year old man was fined CHF 90 francs after he bought a train ticket on his phone 1.5 minutes after his train departed, reported Le Matin.
On 11 January 2022, the man caught a train from Lenzburg in the canton of Aargau. Trying to buy his ticket before boarding, the man found that his phone face ID did not work because he was wearing a mask. With fogged up glasses he eventually managed to enter his password and purchase a ticket, but the transaction was completed 1 minutes and 32 seconds into his journey.
Shortly before his destination, the man’s his ticket was checked without any mention of the late timing of his ticket purchase. However, two days later he received a fine of CHF 90.
On 13 January 2022, along with a 100 franc bill, the man sent a letter to Swiss Rail explaining that it was the first time he had been fined in 57 years of Swiss train travel, requesting that the money be spent maintaining trains. Swiss Rail sent back a CHF 10 franc rail coupon.
When approached, the rail operator refused to make an exception. A spokesperson said that permission to travel must be completely finalised before departure. If not a fine must be paid. This is the only way to ensure that passengers do not wait to buy tickets when ticket checks are imminent and ride for free the rest of the time.
More on this:
Le Matin article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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Saeed says
SBB should use a little comment sense. SBB shouldn’t just refund the money but also apologies .
Richard says
I accept they do need to avoid people buying a ticket just before the inspection… but according to the article the guy bought his ticket 90 seconds into the journey and the inspection was near the destination. Surely here some common sense should apply?
Antonio says
Shame on SBB, i can agree if the payment was 10 minutes after that, but 1.5 minutes? Comer on! Sometimes you have connection problems and you need to catch the train in order to not lose it!!!
Sri says
Silly policy..
When it comes to bus journey..people buy ticket after boarding the bus , so how come different policy for bus and train journeys..