Once again I was astonished how the Swedish government is solving problems.
In Sweden you can pay cash when you enter a bus or a subway. Meaning there are no machines where you can buy tickets. Either you have a yearly or a monthly card or you buy single tickets in advance or you can pay when entering the bus or subway. Of course this lead to many burgleries, often bus drivers were robbed at night.
At a certain point the bus drivers had enough and went on strike! Yay - we all used the public transport for free. Which of course annoyed the people with the monthly and yearly cards....
Since yesterday there is a new solution to the problem! Instead of installing expensive machines at every station, they raised the ticket price when paying cash. And they didn´t raise it by a bit, no no, now a ticket costs double the price. only if you pay cash. This is their way of convincing and forcing people to pre-buy tickets and keeping thives away. New is also that you can buy your ticket with your mobile phone via text message, the ticket is one third more expensive than if you would pre-buy your ticket. If you pre-buy your ticket you get it even cheaper than the previous bus price! So, guess what I do; I follow their wish and pre-buy my tickets :)
I find this a very innovative solution, definitely cost saving. But I am not sure if the burglery will stop, since now the thives could get double as much.......
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6 comments:
Interesting. Sounds like they should just forbid the paying w/cash.
I think that's one of the things I lke about Sweden, their pragmatism. Cash is not impossible but since its use brings negative consequences, it is discouraged.
Thanks Jewish Smörgasbord for your visit. I was just wondering which message you left (the one about Wallenberg and positive parents)? Sorry to be inquisitive but since I'm just starting this I am a bit anxious to see if I get more tha one visit a day!!
I'll be in Stockholm on October, 2nd.
I'm glad they found a solution however I can't say it's really fair.
What if you need it only once or twice a month?
The SMS sytem is not bad on the other hand.
That's very 21st century!
Instead of pre-paid tickets, we have pre-paid tokens that are cheaper than paying cash.
Stacey: I guess that´s the next step if the price increase will not help.
Ilana: I had a technical problem and saw that my comment never went through!!! But I added you to my RSS feed now, hope you write soon again.
Prag: If you only need a ticket here and there, you can pre-buy single tickets for the same reduced price (no price change). This country loves SMS, you can get everything as an sms....
LVNSM 27: sounds like a similar system. does it work?
Must be hard to get used to everything I think you are great.:)
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