3 ms·

Same as in Greece there are (traditionally, I don't know currently) 3 people handling every bus. One driver and two to take payments etc.

• swiley 5y ago
  >One driver and two to take payments etc. What the heck?
  • _delirium 5y ago
    This hasn't been true in decades, but yeah, buses used to have a ticket seller/collector on board (εισπράκτορας). Buses in Greek cities are busy enough that the driver can't do both jobs, like some U.S. systems do, without unreasonable stop dwell times (especially in the days when you could get change on board!). To keep things going, the driver would pull away from the stop ASAP, and the ticket seller would take payment from the newly boarded people while the bus was moving. On most buses there'd be 1 driver and 1 ticket collector, at least by the 1990s. There might be 2 collectors on long articulated buses, one near the front and one near the back. The last vestiges of that system were phased out with the drachma/euro conversion around 2000, when everything had to be changed over anyway. Nowadays most Greek cities use a proof-of-payment system, where you have to buy and/or validate a ticket yourself from self-service machines. Then roving inspectors get on buses randomly and fine people who can't produce a current ticket. The old system has been gone long enough that there are nostalgia articles like, "Do you remember the days when buses had an 'eispraktoras'?". The last two photos here show a ticket collector station at the rear door, which would have a cash drawer under the counter for making change: https://www.enimerotiko.gr/ellada/thymasai-tote-poy-ta-leoforeia-eichan-eispraktora-kai-to-eisitirio-liges-drachmes/ https://www.enimerotiko.gr/ellada/thymasai-tote-poy-ta-leofo...