As a Czech person I'm on the tourists' side in this case. There's no need for the whole process of buying and validating the ticket to be so complicated. I have no words for the inspectors.. scumbags.
As a Prague citizen this is beyond infuriating, the incentive system for inspectors (and by extension the dpp) is totally idiotic and only creates a conflict of interest. In this case, single use tickets should not need to be validated, period. And as for those two scumbags I have no words, they should not be working with the public.
@@czsokolathan just use the app? Or a longer period ticket if you're going in and out. Single use should be valid straight after purchase especially at a stop like this. Ok at metro or a bus sure but there why?
@@domiibunn I think Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, the simplest solution would be not take advantage of confused tourists and check the tickets at the entrance.
yea. prague is proud of him, not realizing that he was writting about them. this ticket situation is emblematic of how things work in prague and czech republic in general.
I was in Prague as a Slovak tourist so I could speak to everyone normally and the treatment you get is much different than when you are an English-speaking tourist in general. I took this ride both ways and on the way up there two ticket inspectors stopping the foreign tourists and making them pay because of some silly things. There was no ticket sale guide person, let alone even anyone operating anything there. One guy came and opened the "gate" and that was that. Probably the scummiest experience of Prague even if it didn't effect me personally.
I guess you haven't noticed, but these tourists were paying the fine in Polish Złoty, what means they're from Poland. While our languages aren't the same with Czech, we surely can communicate in native. It's just easier in English. Honestly, while in Bratislava I had a great experience as Pole, a lady in the reception desk of my hotel was trying to greet me in Polish, and people were awesome, I had a 180 degree different experience in Prague. I even felt some hostility toward me once when I spoke to my niece in Polish. The guy behind me in shop queue called me "f...ing Pole". It's a beautiful city, but due to that experience I think at least some Czechs are racist towards Poles and consider themselves to be "superior" 🙁
I was there 1 month ago. I use the public transportation app, which is rarely mentioned by Janek. I validated a 3 day ticket. But when i came to the fenicular place, there where absolutely no information on how to enter with an already purchased validated ticket. I almost bought a new ticket because there were no people helping tourists. But i stood in line and waited , and thankfully, showing the app to the inspector was enough. But that place clearly need more updated and clear information for tourists.
Hopefully the city sees this video and put in place measures to prevent this from happening. Ticket inspectors are the only benefactors of the current situation.
@@JohannaMueller57 Bingo, there's plenty of systems out there that do not require validation, inspectors or any insider knowledge, this has been chosen.
@@castorchua this way people can buy multiple tickets at once and validate them before use (though most locals have a long term pass so it's not useful to that many people)
I went to Prague and had this exact issue, just at the metro, not at the cable car. The app ticket validation takes 3 minutes and apparently in those 3 minutes you may not enter the platform yet. We went onto the platform and I had 4 seconds left and the inspector told me to come scan it quickly. Then he fined me because my ticket was not valid (if he would have been 4 seconds later it would have been valid). Kinda ruined my day lol.
I've had only one similar incident in Czech Republic and it was on a local train from Prague to Velke Popovice (going on a tour in Kozel brewery). I needed 1h ticket for the trip but didn't know I had to validate it before entering the train. That's not how train tickets work anywhere in Europe. Nevertheless, I went on without validating it. I asked a man and a girl sitting next to me if it was OK but they dodn't know or didn't want to tell me anyway. When the conductor came she noticed my ticket haven't been validated and I went on explaining what had happened. The girl that was sitting next to me backed up my story too. The conductor then waited for the next stop to come and told me to validate the ticked on one of the machines there. I was surprised I didn't get a fine instead and I'm still grateful for this gesture.
@@xBox360BENUTZER what haha we don't have a ticket validating system. We don't even have timed tickets except for peak and non peak. I don't think you completely understand the validating system.
> That's not how train tickets work anywhere in Europe. Well, that's not exactly true: 1) Some regional train tickets in Italy have (or at least had) to be validated too. 2) What you actually had were actually not train tickets but public transport tickets on an integrated train route. Now this might feel confusing, but it works like this for example in Warsaw, you can ride some trains with (some) validated public transport tickets.
Visited last year! It is a tourist trap. We waited for 20 minutes in line, and when we entered the building, we WERE rushed to BUY TICKET NOW, car is leaving... So we did... and had NO TIME to read around and realize, that our 3 day pass is ALREADY valid for the ride. It is a tourist trap! We lovad Prague alltogethr, and if there was no show and ice on the hill, we would have walked. PS: The other stupig thing in the city: The metrnonom... when it's even a tiny bit wed, that marble is insane slippery :D
It's not just tourists and not just Prague - a couple of years ago my step-mother who is Czech got on her bus home from the centre of Liberec at like 6am after a night shift at the hospital heading to the outskirts of town where she and my Dad live - she was still looking in her bag and stuff for the bus pass/ticket when the bus moved off. At which point an undercover (!) ticket inspector positively leapt up and immediately demanded a fine for not validating the ticket before the start of the journey. The argument was much the same as the recording - these guys do not give an inch. In my step-mums case even other passengers were complaining that this was BS. The transport in Prague and Czech in general is amazing - but the inspectors are massive dickheads. And they are paid and trained to be massive dickheads. They are on quotas to get as much extra revenue as possible.
It's interesting that so many people had so many problems with ticket inspectors. I never had any problem, but my father was a tram driver in 90s and they hated ticket inspectors back in the day. But they hated even bus drivers. 😀
You can actually protest paying the fine. For one you can (and should) make their life as difficult as possible, even wait for the police, etc.; chances are they will let you go. Just don't give them your details, don't sign anything, stick to your story (i.e. they didn't give me the opportunity to validate the ticket). What's BS in this video is how the ticket inspector is lying to the police, knowing that the tourist can't even understand them and defend themselves.
@@amunak_ Good luck with that, you just gave the instructions how to end in a jail at the end, because that happens when you escalate things and deny to pay a fine. Police is mostly good in Czechia, but they have only some patience and when their patience bar is empty, you will end on the ground with knee on your neck and then you can sue them for kneeing on you just because of stupid ticket, except it's not because of stupid ticket. 😀
I have my own experience with Czech public transport from many years ago. I bought a ticket for a train, chose a wagon and a seat. Only sign that it was a exclusive area was a glass door sepparating sepparating half of the wagon into two. Instead of telling me i happened to be in 1st class and i should move, they demanded me to pay up. Same thing happened to a couple who enter the came wagon i did later in the journey. Someone came up to them and said something in czech, the couple moved right away.
“You can buy a ticket that is already validated (1:50) but you must use it right away, if you wait 5 MINUTES it’s no good”. Seriously? 5 MINUTES? That doesn’t sound weird at all! Sounds like there’s plenty of opportunities for the ticket inspectors to make bonuses!
No, it's maybe 20minutes Or so. But it has some logic, if you use the ticket to go up, it must be invalid to go down again. So the time frame MUST be elapsed by the end of the ride. That's a bit dangerous if there is a queue of people waiting, the other tickets you stamp when boarding. On busses or trams or so, the time frame is 60minutes most often and allows transfers.
A friend of mine in Italy took a train between villages. There are national trains and local trains between those villages. She bought a ticket for the train between the villages, but a national train was going from and to the same villages and which was which was poorly indicated. She got on the wrong train and there was a ticket inspector just sitting there the whole time, watching them, not talking to them. As soon as the doors closed he went straight to them (the obvious tourists) and gave them a fine. Like a 300€ fine.
honestly is more like a very strict enforced validation. In my opinion i rather have this than new york city train station or just a bunch of high theft/criminal area
The same is in Riga, Latvia, where public transport ticket inspectors have additional monthly 'bonus' for each person caught and written a fine. Sure on one hand it motivates to do the job right, but it also really enforces a strict 'black or white' policy that unfairly inspectors will just use to get additional monthly maximum bonus undermining reputation for the whole ticketing system and public transport. (p.s- the ticket validation inspection here is Riga is brutal, you are treated as a hardcore criminal, they of course lock the electronic validation machine before(drivers have a heads up and they know where are they), they stop between stops, only open doors for inspectors to get in, then they fast close it, so you are not allowed to get off. Also there is a police present and they also are inspector side, enforcing you to pay the fine and dont care about your excuses..) 😉
In Denmark parking attendents do not get a bonus for every car they write a ticket, this would be illegal, but instead they are met with insanely high demands on how many tickets they must write in a day so either they get "creative", they work longer hours until they meet their quota OR they get fired for "poor performance" There have been so many cases where they were caught doing shady stuff, but the companies they work for get away with it by claiming this is the individual inspector that has gone bad...When in fact they encourage them to do these things.
Oh wow, we had a similar experience with the bus! We had just landed in Prague for the first time and bought our bus tickets 5-10 minutes after landing. In our rush to catch the bus, we forgot to validate the tickets (didn't even know we had to). When the inspector came around, we explained that we had just arrived and bought the tickets minutes ago, but he insisted we'd face the police and pay more if we didn't settle the fine right there. It was a lot for us, especially being in a new country for the first time. Not wanting to waste our short 2-day trip with authorities, we paid the fine and moved on, even cutting out some attractions like the tower and cable car. Despite the rocky start, I ended up loving Prague! It's now one of my favorite destinations, and I’m already planning a return trip next year. Love Prague ❤❤❤
You need to get some recognition from the Prague officials for all your work 👏, been to Prague for the first time couple of months ago and beforehand I've watched at least 30 of your videos it helped me a lot. It was like I lived in Prague, and your city is amazing will definitely come again so many museums are left unchecked.
That is the most stupid, convoluted, impractical, and unfair ticketing system I've ever heard of. And based on how rude and scummy the inspectors are, I'm 99% sure that they just pocket the money most of the time. Even if the city pays inspectors for "catching" invalid tickets, that payment is obviously not going to be equal to the fine; otherwise the city would be losing money on the whole ordeal. So why would they *not* pocket the money.
A couple months ago we went to Prague with school. The teachers bought tickets for the people that didn't want to walk up. They made a mistake when showing the tickets and everyone had to pay a 1000 crown fine and spent a few hours at the police station. I didn't have to cause I walked up but it still sounded pretty crazy. In total it was about 40 people who had to pay a fine.
This is very "common practice" in post soviet block countries. Try to get a train from Warsaw airport to central station as a foreigner. I'm polish, and I'm always astonish by complexity of buying a simple ticket for a sole railway line. I was witness several times of a situation where an inspector was giving 100euro fine to a person that bought 0,1euro cheaper ticket. Your theory on correlation between presence of inspector and absence of support personel may be right.
Chování některých revizorů je fakt otřesná vizitka Prahy. Mám mezi nima už několik "známých", o kterých dopředu vím, že se chovají hrubě, sprostě a navíc neumí anglicky. A turistům nejenže nevysvětlí co po nich chtějí, ale navíc jim vyhrožují, viz. video Honzy a Janka. Tihle lidi mají opravovat eskalátory, ne komunikovat s lidma.
@@Pidalin taky nejezdím na černo, ale používám roky každej den tramvaje a metro, občas i autobusy, za tu dobu si člověk některý obličeje zapamatuje. Plus pracuju na Veleslavíně, což je oblíbený "odchytový" místo pro revizory, číhají tam na turisty každý den, aby jim následně mohli předvést svoji neangličtinu a agresivní jednání.
@@Tomas.P Takovéhle revizory ráda trolím tím, že mi nestačí pouze odznáček MHD, ale požaduji po nich platnou legitku se jménem a fotkou. Koneckonců, to právo je zvájemné. Oni mají právo vidět platnou jízdenku, já zase jejich legitku. XD
@@Tomas.P V Praze už nebydlim asi 10 let, revizora jsem roky neviděl, nebo se tam někdy mihli že jsem si jich sotva všimnul, ale když jdu na férovku suverénně směrem k nim, tak mě nekontrolujou, oni to nějak poznaj že člověk nemá platnou jízdenku.
Got stopped twice in Prague by these inspectors. First time was inside the metro and they were checking each and every person's ticket. Second time was clearly a try out to get tourists. I was heading to the airport by myself when I crossed a group of three inspector who were having a chat. When they saw me, one of them went straight to me asking for my ticket. Full crowd but I was the only one with a traveling bag and the only one they asked for a ticket. 100% no doubt they were focusing on getting tourists. Good thing I was taught how to use the public transportation by a local to avoid getting caught in these tricky situations. Too bad most tourists are not that lucky. Besides that, I loved Prague. Going to this park you showed was an amazing experience. I got there from the Prague Castle nearby it so I didn't use this transportation you showed (nor would, i prefer walking). From the castle I went to a monastery midway and I then I got to this park through the woods in there and then the tower, which is sooo much worth the visit. Such a lovely walk. So far, Prague has been the city I went that I enjoyed the most walking around. So much to see...
I was with my family last year and i just bought 24h ticket, validated, and used it for funicular. Of course ticket inspectors were at the top after the ride, but everyone in my group had valid tickets. Many in that line had no idea that you could use regular transit ticket for that ride or anything about validation.
The tickets could be unified, but it is not difficult and 5 minutes of preparation before going to a CITY YOU DONT KNOW will give you all the info you need. Most of these incidents are because tourists assume stuff they shouldnt and proceed to get mad that it doesnt work like in their country. I will admit that some of the inspectors are assholes though. Tourniquetts at the fenicular are definitely a good idea, however a really bad one in the rest of the city.
@@Joe-sg9ll Actually, the ticket system in Prague is not complicated at all. If you take 3 minutes of your time and look it up on the internet or just look around you at the station. I travelled across almost 40 countries and used public transportation in hundreds of cities, and I never had any issues. Just don't be lazy.
10 месяцев назад
@@kotoucjan this is not public transport ticket, this is cable car ticket, not interchangable
@ Well, that is not entirely true. The cable car is part of Prague Public Transportation. It is included in any ticket that lasts 24 hours or more. You pay extra only if you don't have any. But it is almost always worth it to buy the 24-hour ticket for 120 Kč because you can take the cable car and regular public transportation. And you can buy those in all machines at the cable car station as well. That is why there are ticket inspectors there. Because it is part of the system.
10 месяцев назад
@@kotoucjan but you can't buy the cable car specific ones everywhere, your argument is stupid Why sell ticket specific to only cable car at the entrance to cable car that needs validation? Yea sell it somewhere else, but wtf, you're not gonna use the ticket anywhere else and it's only valid there
Which is really sad but understandable. Prague must do better - have better signage, and here perhaps even have an actual turnstile to check the tickets first.
@@castorchua those aren't scam fines, it was the tourist fault, the sign saying how to do it correctly is big enough. You hate Prague without any reason.
Two weeks ago, I was standing outside of a bar in Prague with my friend and about 30 other people. Some were having a drink in their hands and we were all chatting. The security guards and the bar owners were all fine with it. Suddenly, the municipal police showed up with a van and quite a number of officers and demanded all of our identity cards from us. Only after receiving them all, they exclaimed that we were all illegally drinking on the street and the bar owners warned us while we knowingly did it anyway. We were all fined without ability to defend ourselves; no matter whether you were just a bystander, didn't have a drink or simply walked past. It seemed very set-up since we were all foreigners and they clearly knew, which is why we immediately went home and left the city the next day. It was really a sad way of ending the trip.
As a Prague resident, the funicular also accepts 24-hour or longer tickets. So if you buy - in my case - a monthly pass (usually via Lítačka), you should be able to ride the funicular without an extra ticket. Also from my experience, the funicular going downwards is less crowded than the one going upwards.
This was really our only bad experience in Prague. We couldn’t get the machine to accept any of our credit cards and we noticed everyone else having the same problem. The staff had no interest in assisting us and even sent us on a wild goose chase to get help from two other employees on their smoke break who seemed surprised to be asked. We finished up walking to the top and the exercise did us the world of good! But it really shouldn’t have been that difficult.
In poland rhey have super weird validation system as well. They have timed tickets and the locals wait for the train to start moving, to validate. Sometimes train Will sit un station for a long tume and if you validate early, you can get un trouble. This validation system is super weird and ancient 😂
In Switzerland, basically all these funiculars, trams or other "part attraction - part transport" rides have the same system that eliminates most of these problems: a turnstyle, where if you're through, you're valitated. You can either scan your ticket (with a barcode, so multiple validations are impossible anyway) or if there is a cash registry the employee there can let you through after you paid. I very rarerly see a tourist that has a problem, mostly it's that they don't know how to use the scanner.
Loved this new style of voice-over narrations and fun graphics added in editing. Both informative and hilarious, esp. THIS MACHINE NOT THIS MACHIN graphic 😄
Hey, I was in Prague about a year ago with my school, on the first day we had a tour where we took the underground and got stopped by ticket inspectors, we all had valid tickets (about 50 ish people) and one guy had an invalid one because the stamper broke (we learned later it usually does that) and so one of us was about to get fined until the guide saw what was happening and argued with them in our favour, took about 15 minutes but we got off and he stamped his ticket. Why could they not just use their brain before? We were all travelling together and 1 of 50 is invalid. Just let him stamp it there and let us go.
Pro tip for tourist traps, or any sort of trap regardless of whether you are a tourist, if you absolutely get forced into paying (always try to avoid it though), use a credit card and afterward go to your online account and file a chargeback.
The German train system has something similar to this and I got fined for it. 120 euro fine after already spending 25 euro on a 48 hour ticket. Over there you don't need to stamp it immediately, but it's crazy seeing people defend such an archaic system. They also only sell pre-stamped ones in some locations (not the place I was at), at least force the option so people have to specifically click no. Edit: oh my god, looking further into the video they even pulled the "we will call the police and you will pay more money". They also told us paying by card is impossible and it's cash only (probably to try to steal from us, as that's simply not true)
I am British but live in Bratislava where I use pubic transport a lot and visit Prague often but I’ve been caught out and it was ridiculous. I used the PID app to buy tickets for my whole family and the tram came along and we hopped in but our ticket took 2 minutes to become validated which we hadn’t realised - it’s 30 seconds on the Slovak version which is much more reasonable. There was a ticket inspector on the tram and he fined us for having invalidated tickets even though they became validated while we argued! He knew that it was morally outrageous though a we’d paid and weren’t trying to ride for free - and he only fined me rather than all 4 of our group as he was legally entitled to and he gave us a smaller fine. It sucked though as we absolutely were not trying to cheat and it left a really bad taste in my mouth. 2 minutes is a ridiculous amount of time to need to wait. In BA they’ve now altered the app and you can choose when you want the validation to start from so you can maximise the time you use the ticket for according to when your first bus will arrive but you can also opt for using it instantly which is the default now.
You can also select a specific time with the PID app, but the 2min delay is still enforced. It exists so that people can't hop onto public transport and when they see an inspector to just buy the ticket in-place; it's much easier to stall for just 30 seconds (and it takes them a while to check the people before you). So I kinda understand that but it still sucks - I also often don't know when I will need the ticket so it can be a hassle especially when your trip is just at the limit of the ticket's validity :D Though now that you know this you could just stall for 2 minutes next time, it's not really hard.
Hello, once I validate my 72 hour ticket before getting on the bus, do I need to validate again later in the day or next day for the metro or tram or bus? Also, do the tourists 65 and older age have free transportation in Prague. Thank you.
@@stprk Let's say you use 50 vehicles of public transport in 3 days. Would you be able to read anything on the stamp after 50 validations? Would you be able to read the stamp even after the second time you validate it? Think about it. The ticket is valid for 72 hours after you first validate it. DO NOT NEVER EVER EVER STAMP THE TICKET TWICE!!! He said it in the video too.
i remember that park from nearly 15 ago. and being confused about why anyone healthy would take that train. it's a really nice walk up, one of my top 3 places in prague.
I would change the "Stamp Ticket Here" sign (which assumes you know that your ticket needs stamped and merely want to know where you do so) and make it read "You Must Stamp your Ticket Here" (which is self-explanatory, or at least more so.) I would have figured it out, but then I have over 50 years foreign (to the US) travel experience. I can see someone from the US not knowing you have to validate tickets. In the US its more often the case that the Conductor is the one who validates (punches a hole in) your ticket, whereas in Europe YOU are supposed to do that and they only do spot checks to make sure people did it.
The validation system is actually very straightforward: It is time-based - you buy a ticket for different lengths of time (ranging from 30 minutes to 3 days). And you stamp it as you're entering the public transport to start the timer. That's all. It is valid for all means of public transport in Prague. If you buy the ticket on board a bus or tram, it comes with the starting time already printed, which makes sense since you're using the transport already. And if you stamp new time over the old one, or you fail to stamp it at all, you are not using common sense. The inspectors might be strict, but they won't shake you down for something made up or for the color of your skin as some countries do. So if you fail to understand this simple system, you kinda have only yourself to blame. It's ridiculously cheap and available everywhere.
I can see both sides here. I am a Brit and have been visiting Prague since the 1980's. Before going first time I read the rough guide which stated clearly, validate single tickets once only or they cease to be valid. You must validate before you travel or as soon as you board the tram/bus. It isn't the responsibility of Prague transport to supply bilingual ticket inspectors but I do think they are a little to officious on occasion. I have never had a problem with them because I understand the rules before I go. Why would you travel to a foreign city when you can't speak the language without doing some basic research first? Everything is on the internet these days, you don't have to walk to the library like I did the first time. Personally I am ashamed of how many of my fellow countrymen assume they can do as they please abroad and then get the hump when they discover they can't.
I agree. The first time I went to London, I made sure I understood how to use the public transport, downloaded a map and saved all the locations I wanted to visit. It made the trip so much easier. But I'm still thankful for the Look right! signs, they are a literal life-saver for a tourist 😅
Well said, it's not a rocket science to buy a time ticket and validate it. I really don't understand why so many people are not able to understand it. And as a Czech, I know a lot of people who are trying to exploit no gate system, they don't validate on purpose and then argue with inspector that they forget just today, but inspectors know they are lying and they just can't be that tolerant towards everyone who doesn't have valid ticket. Fine in Prague is still pretty cheap, when you don't do any research before you use a public transportation, you will pay a fine. I can understand why people are confused in regional system or trains, there is like milion zone systems, each region has different ticket system....I understand that people don't understand it, but seriously, in Prague? Everything is clear there, you buy a time ticket and you validate it. When you can buy more tickets on stock, it's logical that you have to validate them when it's a time ticket.
@@afiiik1 We do sometimes get it wrong, though! 😉 I remember the last time I broke a train journey at Cardiff Central and left the station to buy refreshments. On the road outside was that same writing which in English said _„Look right“_ ... ...But unfortunately (And quite dangerously) the Welsh beneath it said „Look *Left!* “ 😲
@@Pidalin Prague has one of the finest (and cheapest) public transport systems in Europe. You can move around Prague 24 hours with a decent time schedule. The year ticket for the whole city is like about 150 Euro if you live there. Where do you get that? Yes, the rules are complicated sometimes, and for a tourist or new inhabitant it is not always easy, but then it is also not rocket science.
Yes, it's true that there is (almost) always someone to help the tourists to buy/validate the tickets. But they are not always as friendly as you said. And most of them only speak Czech ( or pretend so), therefore you can't ask any question and also can't understand what they say, if you are a foreigner.
10 месяцев назад
exactly, I'm yet to see inspector willing to speak english, they have it as job requirement, but exactly 0 of them speak it
@MrDjTilo Actually, at least for me, the instructions are clear, and it's also in English. And it works exactly the same as any other public transport in Prague. I think that's the point tourists don't get. Just the help from the workers is not that good.
I traveled to Prague almost 10 years ago and accidentally bought a wrong ticket (iirc, a student ticket instead of a regular one). And of course inspectors stopped me and fined for the wrong ticket. I was indeed a student, but somehow didn't qualify as one. It was a sad experience because the fine was a blow to my already limited budget and i couldn't visit some places in Prague because of that fine. Sad that even after 10 years tourists still have troubles with tickets
We were there in the summer. We had digital tickets for the whole city and they include the train. When we arrived at the top, the guards stopped a family of 4 and wanted 200 euros for the fine. I can say this place is so unorganized and the whole park is a tourist trap, especially the mirror maze. I took 30sec to complete it for 5 euros per person. The only nice thing up there is the observatory and the space themed cafe. Very nice place with great people!
How did you not mention that you can travel with a normal day pass for all Prague transportation system for the same price as a round trip ticket on this? Also a scam how they don't allow anymore 30 or 60 minutes tickets. Why?
Whoever thought it's a good idea to separate the process of purchasing and validating tickets caused this whole problem to begin with. In southern Finland, you buy the ticket in a mobile app and it generates a session for you, which allows you to use the ticket everywhere in a zone during a time period. When you board the bus, you show the ticket from the app to the bus driver when entering(each ticket has a qr code and a color pair determined algorithmically, which the driver can validate with a quick glance). When you board the metro, train or tram, you don't need to show it at all, but if someone doesn't have a ticket during a random inspection run, which happens like once every 30 rides or so, they get fined. All you need to think about is: Buy ticket, when asked to show ticket, show ticket and move on. It should not be any more complex, than that. Want to buy ticket in advance? You can do that and it will automatically validate on the time you chose. The additional benefit is, that even if you run out of battery or you cant for whatever reason show that you have a valid ticket during that time, you can send them verification later and they will not make you pay the 80 euro fee. The treatment the people in this video received would be unthinkable here.
The same system (Used to be) used in Germany as well, and I _think_ the reasoning behind it might've been because only issuing tickets for immediate use causes other problems with cash handling and certain fare types, particularly multiple-journey tickets. The Dortmunder VB used to offer 2, 4 and 8 journey tickets (The latter simply being 2x the former) with quite some saving over the cost of buying each trip individually, and these were issued on ticket stock which had two or four places for validation stamps (Each end of the ticket, on both sides for a 4x). 🎫 Another issue with _immediate use only_ tickets is that where they're used, they cause massive queues at ticket machines during busy periods because people have to buy before boarding. Being able to buy a bunch of tickets during a spare moment (e.g. When alighting the S-Bahn on the way home from work) means at busy times you can walk straight onto the platform, and the only delay for the people behind while validating your ticket is about half a second versus the 2-5 minutes spent selecting a fare and digging for change. 🪙 Some areas are not safe to put cash-accepting machines in, so the validation system means that these stations can be fitted with the validators alone, regular passengers can buy tickets from other stations or newsagents (etc), and a rules exception can be put in place to accommodate visitors who won't know how the system works (e.g: Obtain a boarding pass from driver/guard, pay at destination). 😇 All in all both approaches - _Immediate use_ and _Buy then Validate_ - Have their individual strengths and weaknesses, but the advent of mobile ticketing and electronic payments does mean that validation-based systems can easily be replaced with more modern approaches...So long as alternative measures are still put in place for folks like me who can't afford a smartphone! 🙃
@@dieseldragon6756 With NFC technology being relevant since the late 2000's, there's no problem with not having a smartphone(though its virtually impossible to not have a smartphone in Finland). You can have a card, that you flash onto the validator and that will automatically deduct from the card's balance. There's validators inside each bus, before each metro and train. There are ZERO problems with queues in this system, actually even less of a problem, than in the case of having to buy a physical ticket, then activating that ticket on a validator, because you're literally just removing the point of purchase from the station. Anyways as I said, your point about instant validation with tickets being potentially bad because you can't buy in advance is simply not correct. As said previously, you can buy instantly validating tickets in advance. The only downside is that you can't hoard these tickets, unless you roughly know each time you're going to depart. Although the idea, that hoarding tickets would be a good idea indicates a completely backwards system to begin with.
@@luistin It's good that they provide smartcards (An excellent work-around for the phoneless, that!) but one issue I have with smartcards is that there's no definite (Printed) proof of payment for the journey being made - You have to trust that the system is working as intended, and does so _throughout the course of the contract for travel._ My local system is TfL Oyster🦪 (MiFare based, wholly ITSO incompatible) and that has - Let's just say - A rather _unique_ level of „reliability“ to it... 😉 The issue of hoarding tickets can be analogous to similar things e.g. postage stamps and parking vouchers. AFAIK in Germany an unused ticket remains valid in perpetuity until validated (I note the HVV still has validators in many stations, yet the HVV hasn't issued a ticket requiring validation stamps since before the year 2000) and outstanding unused (Valid) tickets can be a headache for operators, but at the same time it allows a passenger to avoid the impact of inflation by buying as early as they can, and the operator (Who can invest that money early on) potentially benefits too. 💰 If I dug out that half used 4-fahrkarte for the VRR and they still accept them, it would allow me to effectively make a journey around Köln or Düsseldorf tomorrow that was originally paid for in Marks...Not only avoiding inflation, but effectively converting those Marks into Euro at the same time! 😲💶😇
I rode a cable car that looked exactly like this in Bern, Switzerland. It was completely free for us since our hotel provided us with a free "Bern welcome pass" public transport ticket
When I visited Prague in 1991, there was no cable car. At least I don't remember it. I walked up. I did fail to validate a metro ticket once, I didn't see the machine there, don't remember what station it was. All was fine until I was exiting the metro. Some guy stopped me, told me he was an inspector and asked to see the ticket. Out of all people exiting he stopped me, probably saw I was a tourist. I should've checked his credentials. The fine back then was only 120 crowns or maybe 300, at least this was what he said. In US dollars this was around 3 dollars, so I didn't bother arguing.
As long as the people are buying the tickets valid for only the ride to the top of the hill should not require validating .. as you said, if the validation is going to make already validated tickets invalid .. this is absolutely not right .. I think this needs to be sorted by the city and you should do something about it Janek
The ticket you buy for the cable car is the same as for ALL public transportation in Prague. If you don't validate it, you could use the same ticket for ever. That's why you need to validate it. Because the tickets you buy are valid only for a certain period of time after validation. 30min, 90min, 24h, 72h. It's not confusing at all. It's actually very clear. And this system is used in many European cities.
I was in Prague not so long before this was posted. The cable cart was closed at the time, but the ticket machine still accepted money. So I bought a ticket and then noticed it was closed. Bummer. (It was the stop in the middle of the way up BTW.)
I just have been there, and it is a tourist trap for me. because it’s a very small hill, and you can just walk up to the top very easily within 15 minutes.
It can be much more simpler imo. In my city you have 1 card for all public transport and its same for everyone. It can be recharged everywhere. App, shops, metro stations.
A system with multiple machines to print a ticket and then 'validate' it is convulented and more complex than necessary, thus it is a trap. A ticket *is* the validation and evidence that one has purchased a ride.
The first time I met a ticket inspector in Prague was on holiday with my parents. I was probably a 14 - 15 year old, so it was about 25 years ago. I was a few meters ahead of my parents on the subway platform when this older man shows me an emblem and says something in Czech. Thinking he was trying to sell me something, I politely said "No thanks" and hurried on. The ticket inspector had never experienced anything like this and stood looking at me in amazement (my parents told me) until a few seconds later my parents reached the inspector, showed their 14 day tickets, apologized on my behalf and called me back so he could see my ticket. 🤣
They got one of these in Turku and it has gained infamony for 2 reasons. It was very expensive for city and it's constantly breaking down, I am actually not sure if it has more uptime than downtime. And it has become a meme here in Finland
Thanks as always for the video. The “solution” is actually relatively simple: the cable car tickets you buy are valid immediately, you no longer have to stamp them. The obvious question is: why isn't this the case? Because: this tickets cannot be used anywhere else, have to be used the same day and the personnel costs for the ticket inspectors at the gates are certainly higher than the fines. Or not? In this case the system would be intentional and yes, a tourist trap.
No. Cable car is part of public trasportation in city, so you may use regular tickets for whole city (at least 1 day), but it is needed to be validated as it would be needed during entering to underground or bus. There are also special tickets for cable car , if you are only interested in cable car.
@@alexandermieske797 If you speak specifially about cable car tickets, I dont see reason to call it trap only because of option, that you can buy tickets in advance. They dont have to be used at the same moment or day. You can buy them on morning (during walking around station on your way somewhere else) without queue and use them during afternoon (or at least second ticket for coming back at the same time as first ticket).... ticket machine is not same with validation machine, so these two have separated queues. Also, i cannot confirm, if MOST tourists prefer specifically cable car tickets. They may just use one day ticket, that is much better.
We had no problem with our funicular tickets but then I’m super-careful, especially when there are lots of signs to read. Being a bit OCD is not a bad thing sometimes.
I remember being here a long time ago (maybe 10 years) - we saw the queue and decided to just walk. A shame, as it sounds like it might have been a good ride, but at least we avoided the risk of being tricked by inspectors!
Ticket inspectors have terrible reputation among the travelling public. In some cities, they are motivated to issue as many fines as possible and they will find any kind of petty excuse to fine you. My city of Pilsen is one of the worst in this regard, with ticket inspectors looking and behaving like gang members. I have also experienced a very similar situation on a train in the UK.
Interesting, actually I find the ticket inspectors in CR just angels comparing to their colleagues in any other countries I've seen them, incl. Austria or Germany. They are quite calm and unaggressive mostly.
Lols, validating tickets is really such as easy trap to fine tourists for ALL european countries. Take for example the paper tickets for the metro in Paris, it's valid for one ride and tourists buy a carnet (10 tickets in one go since its cheaper). It gets a bit confusing sometimes because someone may forget which is the specific ticket they validated when entering the station and even if they argue that they have already bought a whole bunch of tickets and ask for the ticket inspector to check each of them, the inspector will just ignore and fine them for not producing the right ticket. Secondly, the paper tickets gets demagnetised super easily if you place it near your phone, and again, another place for city inspectors to fine you. Thats for Paris, but this problem is not only prevalent in France. You've been in Italian cities, whenever you find ticket inspectors on the buses, the first people they target are tourists. They will literally walk past everyone local on board and directly to the tourists to check their tickets. Afterwards, they exit the bus. It's a huge disappointment
I have two opinions about this: 1. Do you don't have such validating System in your country? We have this in Germany all the time for public transports, so I always check if there is something like this to do. 2. Couldn't you just install a barrier that just opens when you validate your ticket? Doesn't the Prague metro already have that? btw. that doesn't mean that I'm on the inspectors side...
Ticket validation is essentially non-existent in places such as America. I only know of one transit system that requires it. That said, neither Berlin nor Viennas transit system has a barrier system for validating tickets.
Try to ride a bus, a regular city bus in Haifa, Israel. Inspectors can enter the bus at any stop, and if you're "lucky" enough to hop on the bus right before them, but not quick enough to validate the ride, your guaranteed to get a fine of 100 shekels, roughly 30 dollars
There is an indication of a crime. For the personel on ground station it doesn't make sense not to help tourists, when ticket inspectors are there. But if the ticket inspectors offered a share of their bonus payment, if they just be more passive, it would perfectly make sense. But you would have to find proof for it. But anyways, the problem could be solved if they would like to solve it, because there are easy ways to prevent using service without payment: 1) Just have one payment system, where you can give cash, pay by phone or credit card; 2) have just turnstyle entrances; 3) have just one employee there to check, that nobody jumps over the turnstyle (what tourists wouldn't do anyways).
The "validation" is a complication just for this purpose. The fact you have 5 minutes to validate puts a rush on things when there is a line. They could update the system and remove the inspectors and just put a security camera if anyone jumps the gate. But there is no gate, just a validation machine.
That cable car was stated as scam in -06 as well. So this is not a new thing. Our guide book stated that it's a sketchy and we just walked to the top. Also taxies try to scam us two times. We did not pay a dime extra. It was great to have right amount of cash and balls of steel.
few years ago we went to Rome and there's train from Fumicino airport to Rome, you need to buy the ticket and validate it on station, and we didn't, and the ticket inspector validatet it for us, and it was the end of it. grazie segnior ticket inspector :)
I was in Germany for the first time, I bought the ticket and didnt know how to validate. And an inspector just showed up in the train but helped me to validate the ticket. No fine. But I was with all the luggage and stuff so my image was a newly arrived tourist whom i was.
That's good, but in Poland we go further. In the silesia region we introduce something called "ŚKUP" and for months (or even years!) there was situations when you cannot validate your ride. The validators was simply disabled, all in the whole bus or tram xD I didn't heard about fined passengers in that case, but yeah. Now we switched to Transport GZM app and you have 30s to scan the QR code after buying the ticket. The QR Code is only in the vehicle. Nice system, I personally hate it. PS: Both systems was created by one company called Asseco, the meme of the IT world. They gain most of the Polish public IT projects.
we need to introduce this validation thing in restaurants imagine you order a meal pay for it and forget to validate your order so nothing gets cooked and you are still in wrong for not validating your order
What are your thoughts a "city pass"? When I visited it was great to not have to worry about public transport and tickets and what have you. It also made riding this funicular a very pleasant and relaxing experience (aside from the queue xD)
While I did not ride on the funicular, on my last metro ride in Prague on the way to the airport, inspectors had detained someone who had improperly validated their ticket. I could see that the printing was on the wrong side of the ticket. No sympathy was offered and the person probably had to pay a fine. It was likely a simple mistake inserting the ticket upside down, but it was costly.
We in Berlin have a stupid system in place for our public transportation, that makes you just go one direction with the ticket. It's valid for... I think 120 minutes at this point? But, only in one direction. Now... What happens if you use the Ring-Bahn, or went the wrong direction by accident as you are no familiar with the city? Yeah, you guessed it: pay. It wasn't always like that, but I think they changed it around the 00s. I think in this specific case, I DO understand the inspectors, even though it kinda sucks, as you already pointed out, it's not an easy system. Just have modern payment gates, as e.g... I hate to say it... even Los Angeles has (and believe me, public transport there is not exactly a role model). There is no physical indication on the card that tells it's valid or invalid. I guess they use ncf, rfid, or something similar... But yeah, easy way to not get into scummy situations. Also, I don't exactly remember how it was in Bergen, they also had a funicular, but I think there was no problems, at least nothing I can remember off. Ah and if that funicular is something to go by, probably the one in Prague should also be a nice ride 🙂.
All of Prague is a tourist trap. You used to get scammed on almost every corner last time I was there. It already starts with simply trying to obtain their currency: the exchange offices had some arbitrary rules they would only tell you about after the transaction when You asked where the rest of your money's at.
Did you do anything with the recording? I think it would be interesting to hear what the police and city authorities think about the corruption which must be going on there on a regular basis. I wonder how many times these inspectors may have pocketed CK 10,000?
The freedom of free access to the trains, without having the ticket checked, like in Paris or London Metro, seems to be new to some people in first place. And second, the two step process of buying a ticket, and saying "I want to use it now"/validation, is also strange. The idea is to be able to buy 10 tickets at once, and use it one by one. Here they have a 3rd way, of buying an already validated ticket, that make the above rules obsolete. So whatever you buy, make sure date and time is printed on the ticket. That's the insurance you cannot use it twice.
I went to Prague 10 years ago, beautiful place, we were stopped by uniformed men when we crossed the road with everyone else and were told we had to pay a fine for crossing wrongly. 😂 I refused said I had no cash on me. Would not return. 😢
So turns out I have been in that cable car (I found a single photo in my albums clearly taken from the inside of it), but I don't remember having any sort of complications with those things back in 2018. That was probably in part because I was with three Czech people from Prague
I will be going there soon for the first time. I will be walking everywhere and I've paid for airport transfers in advance because I don't want to deal with those machines or the fuss of trying to understand public transport payments, being autistic it is hard enough going to a new place so I want to limit the stress.
The state could rather develop a bonus program in which you receive bonus payments if there are no complaints against you.But I understand that the bonus program currently makes sense because you get some of the money you earn (for the state), but there is still an incentive that can tempt individuals to take advantage of it Dobré video, děkuji ✌️❤️👍
in turkey you just have a card, you put money in it and use while getting in a public transport and in many cities you can also download their app and scan qr codes to pay. europe is the worst when it comes to paying for public transport
If you're being fined for not having a ticket because it wasn't validated (used for that trip) and you're being fined for not having a ticket (because you purchased a token to use for the trip but did not use it) and are then being denied the unused token back, they're effectively stealing that token, which would be a crime no matter how you look at it, that token is still valid to be validated. This system is asinine at best, and malicious at worse.
Just my 2 cent on crooks: We are ALL capable of becoming crooks. You just need to go through the right circumstances in order to become one. Usually this means you've just gotta land a job where your coworkers are crooks. Then its only a question of time. I train people in my line of work (internet technician). Everyone comes in honest, they will never lie, etc. But everyone starts cutting corners in the first month when they work. The more experience, the more they cut corners/lie/cheat others. I too started the same way. We all look at it as its part of the job and that in reality its not our fault, but the company or the client's. But deep inside I m pretty sure we all understand that its our fault and us being lazy. In this line of work, if you want to make money, you absolutely have to cut corners. Like, its impossible not to lie/cheat clients every now and then. Some do it more, some less. Generally, but not always, the highest paid techs are just the most experienced both at the technical part, but also at the con artist part. And the more you do it, the less you take notice of it Being a crook on the job does not mean the person is a crook in real life though. Most of these techs I interact with are very good natured, kind, honest, etc, in real life. Like, I could leave them all in my home with thousands of dollars laying around and aint nobody is even going to have a thought of taking it. They are all crooks when working, but good humans off work. Its just that in this line of work, you will go broke unless you become a crook. I would imagine something similar is going on with these ticket men in the vid
