Tuesday, January 21, 2014

I Fought the Law, but the Law Won

I apologize for the late post; my internship is kicking up.

The public transportation system in Geneva, like many other cities in Europe, is quite good and transportation companies offer monthly passes. In Geneva the transportation companies are TPG, CFF, SMGN, and five other companies who operate the buses and trains (and possibly a little boat that shuttles people across Lake Geneva). These companies formed a united fare policy and offer bus passes for a fair price.

If you are a "junior" or anyone younger than 25, you can purchase your monthly bus pass for 45 CHF (Swiss Francs(Roughly $50). If you are familiar with the transportation systems in Europe the thought of forgetting your pass and risking not purchasing a ticket looms in the back of your mind as the bus or train "police" may get on your train or bus and give you a ticket.

Ironically, my fellow interns and I were on our way to the main train station (Cornavin) to pick up a monthly pass for one of the new arrival interns. Guess what? She "YOLOed" it. Half way into the bus ride down the route the bus "police" hopped on and stopped people who tried to make a mad dash for the door to escape the impending 80 CHF (roughly $90) fine for riding the bus without purchasing a ticket. She tried to reason with the bus "police" saying that she was "new here", "didn't know where to purchase the ticket" "didn't speech French", and was "confused". I can only assume that the bus "police" heard it all. Mercilessly, they summoned one of their colleagues who spoke the most English. Confusion and panic ensued, but there was no way out of the fine for her.

The lesson of this story is: To always buy a ticket and if you have a transportation pass; to always bring it with you even if you have to run back to your house. You can try to fight the law, but in this case the law won.    

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