What century was MetCard XPress arriving in again?
>(Host): What sort of ticket was it?
>(Passenger): A weekly.
>(Host): You shouldn't have put a weekly in there.
What a stupid thing to say.
>(Passenger): I thought you had to.
>(Host): Well, you shouldn't have let go of it. Just hold onto it, and put
>the end in the machine, but don't let it go.
What another stupid thing to say.
Since when does the whole ticket not go into the machine? How else would it read
the entire magnetic stripe? And was the host actually suggesting you try and
guess the speed at which the machine "grabs" it so you don't bend the ticket?
>(Host): Where did you buy it?
>(Passenger): At Blackburn, this morning.
So it probably wasn't a mis-treated ticket.
>(Host): Is that zone 1?
>(Passenger): No, zone 2.
>(Host): You should only put zone 1 tickets in.
!
So I wonder if he reckons every validator is designed to shut down when it gets
a ticket bought in another zone!
>So, after basically making the guy feel pretty small for doing nothing
>wrong, the host eventually wrote out a bit of paper, and told him to use
>that instead of a ticket, and to ring the Metcard hotline.
>He got off, about 10 stops after he had been intending to, looking very
>confused. I wonder how successful the bit of paper will be instead of his
>weekly. I can just imagine the next conductor tearing it up.
Actually, I doubt it. I would imagine most conductors are fairly sympathetic to
ATM victims, as they are themselves! Anyhow, I've seen conductors who recognised
regulars who had forgotten their weeklies, let ride without paying for another
ticket.
Maybe he's lucky there was a host. On services at times that don't normally
carry conductors (64 at night and weekends is one of them), even if the ATMs
have been turned on, there are no hosts.
>I bet he won't be validating again in the future.
Well, his piece of paper probably won't fit in the slot! :-)
>P.S. I also saw a ticket gate at Flinders St. eat someones ticket last
>week.
Sounds like they need to do some work on these things.
Daniel
-- Daniel Bowen, Melbourne Australia. Remove the spam bait to email me personally...