5 ms·

Albeit a small data point, I've used public transport in more than a dozen of countries in Europe and saw barriers near public transports in three countries.

• dx034 9y ago
  The big problem with barriers is that you need standardised tickets. If you want to allow a mix of local tickets and rail tickets (to allow one fare for the whole journey) it'll be close to impossible to build a barrier that works for all of those. The cities that do have barriers (e.g. London) only accept specific tickets on those lines and are large enough to run their own system.
  • cr1895 9y ago
    > If you want to allow a mix of local tickets and rail tickets (to allow one fare for the whole journey) it'll be close to impossible to build a barrier that works for all of those. Let's take Rotterdam or Amsterdam as an example. Both of these stations are closed off to non-ticket holders. You can access Dutch trains as well as international trains like Thalys to France and ICE to Germany. Access is granted by individual tickets bought from the Dutch railway kiosks, by Dutch public transport cards, or by printed/digital QR-code tickets from any of the three rail companies. There is only one type of barrier. There are not isolated entrances for particular lines. Maybe I misunderstand you, because what you say is close to impossible seems to work just fine in the NL.
    • dx034 9y ago
      That works because the Netherlands standardised all tickets. German ICEs and Thalys are one of the rare exceptions and have a work-around. That needs one central body organising and standardising travel across the country. Few countries operate that way. But you're right, it's actually not impossible just unlikely to happen. And I must say I really enjoyed the Dutch system where you don't have to print paper every time.
      • Fnoord 9y ago
        > And I must say I really enjoyed the Dutch system where you don't have to print paper every time. Heh, when we went Amsterdam - Berlin and vice versa we had to print our tickets. We even reserved seats. I quite like that system. One has to reserve in advance if one wants to save costs though. The downside of the Dutch system is its easy for the government and railroad employees to check where you went. There was even a recent scandal about this, where an API was public which showed the transactions. The price of the transactions could be correlated with the cities the traveller traveled to and from. In Germany, you have more anonymity thanks to being dependent on paying with cash and paper tickets. Look, if, with exactly the same cost attached, people don't want that by choice... fair enough. However we don't that choice. And if you travel like 3 times a year a long trip through The Netherlands the 40% discount in down time hours is already worth it. Which is not anonymous but linked to your name. The anonymous card is a joke anyway; not my definition of anonymity that is for sure.
      • bobthepanda 9y ago
        Don't boarding passes already work that way? If the airlines can do it I see no reason why railways couldn't.
        • dx034 9y ago
          Only when airlines cooperate with agreements. The booking numbers are only unique within a system and if you fly on several airlines it's not uncommon to have different booking numbers for each airline. Their systems are often (not always) able to print all tickets in one go but I often had to get a new ticket at a stopover because of system issues. Airports have contracts with each airline flying anyway so they can adapt their systems. Since aviation is a for-profit business (at least in theory), there's more money to do this than for tax funded public transport.
  • justinhj 9y ago
    Vancouver BC now has this. A standard ticket that works throughout the city on all transit. I hate it though because we used to run on a trust system with no barriers and now there is congestion at busy times due to the barriers. It also reportedly did not raise revenues much anyway.
  • Symbiote 9y ago
    London actually works fine. There were two public companies running railways: the national rail system, and the London system. They designed a credit-card sized paper ticket. You can buy a ticket from any station in Britain, to a destination that requires you to change in London (e.g. Brighton), and your ticket will work to travel between the main stations in London. Or you can buy a ticket to a destination in London. However, this does make some more novel ticket types difficult or impossible. In many other countries, you can buy tickets online and print them at home, or buy rail tickets with a smartphone. These aren't possible in Britain.
    • walshemj 9y ago
      I think you can touch in and out in London with your phone now most people just use there debit or credit card as they almost all have NFC.
      • Symbiote 9y ago
        You can, but you can't yet travel to Birmingham (or even Reading) with that system.
  • tialaramex 9y ago
    Actually London works because the barriers are required to be manned. So if 1% of users have crazy tickets (e.g. some international through exist that are valid across London for say Birmingham to Paris) the human just glances at their ticket and lets them through. A typical barrier in London accepts: National Rail (orange) tickets that used to be labelled "Rail Settlement Plan", Oyster (a contactless travel pass used for most public transit in London), the various contactless payment standards (for your VISA etcetera) and its own pink tickets. But a human is always there if you have something else.