Quote:
Originally Posted by 3rd&Brown
Berlin also operates on the honor system, which when I was there (granted this was 13 years ago) was actually quite hard to comply with because as I remember it you needed exact change to buy a ticket from antiquated machines and in the short time I was there I never had exact change.
I'm sure it's all done through digital wallets etc now.
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LOL I studied abroad in Berlin in 2009, and one week I validated my weekly pass at 23:57 on a Tuesday. The following Tuesday at like 8 in the morning, one of the fare officers cited me for an expired pass. Apparently the 3 minutes between 11:57 PM and midnight Tuesday night counted for an entire day; sure enough, it was there in the fine print on those stupid rinky dink kiosks.
That was, however, the first time I had an argument with somebody entirely in German. I was so proud and also so annoyed.
It also goes to show how important punctuality, frequency, and cleanliness are to a well functioning transit system. I still regard Berlin as one of the best--up there with the Tube--despite its totally antiquated purchasing system.