JumboBuc
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2013
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The app needs a MY TRAIN WAS CANCELLED REFUND ME BITCH option
With fully established entrance and exit fare validation, you need not get charged if you enter and exit at the same station within a limited amount of time.The frequency of delays, and their severity, appears to have been completely ignored, especially because it's not necessarily the case that any given delay or cancellation is announced any meaningful time in advance. I've had experiences where I've been at the station, waiting, and a delay (subsequently turning into a cancellation) wasn't even announced until the time the train was supposed to depart, i.e. long after most if not all passengers would expect to have validated tickets and entered the paid area. (In my case I'd be particularly furious given that I live close enough to the Orange Line that whenever the Haverhill had a meltdown it was a viable alternative option, but like hell am I going to waste a CR fare and pay for the subway, which would be forced on anyone using M-Ticket and potentially on other non-pass users.)
Say you enter through the gates at North Station intending to go to Lowell, but then leave through those same gates at North Station 30 minutes later. The act of exiting North Station through the gates could basically invalidate the fare that was previously validated when you entered, making your "ticket" ineligible to travel to Lowell but also deleting the charge from your account. The same process could be used for stepping out of the waiting area to get some food or take a leak, for example.
In this situation, one could also hypothetically validate to enter the faregates then invalidate to exit, without ever exiting. Then they'd be in the waiting area without a validated fare and could potentially make their way onto a train for free, but they won't have a validated fare active if checked. This would basically be equivalent to jumping a turnstile.
The "thing" with all of this is that it has to be fully established to really work. Setting up gates on one station doesn't make sense; it has to be pretty much all or nothing.
It's also important to recognize that no system is foolproof. Some schmucks will always game the system to find a way to travel without paying. But a good system will be set up in a way that discourages the greatest amount of people from doing this. It's one thing to simply "forget" to validate your fare unless asked by a conductor, and plenty of otherwise rule following people do this to get trips without paying. I had a coworker in the Before Times who came into the office 2-3 times a week, and she would buy a 10-trip pass that would last her well more than 10 trips because she only validated when an inspector was approaching; if one never came by she never validated. I wouldn't be surprised if this sort of behavior is relatively common. It's a whole 'nother level of dishonesty and thievery, however, to jump a gate or show a fake screenshot / be a jerk to an inspector when questioned; many fewer people do this. My understanding of the logic behind the gates is that it will nudge the general rule-following public to be more adherent to validating tickets, even if it doesn't catch the outright scofflaws.
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