(02-07-2020, 06:54 PM)ac3r Wrote: Germany and I believe Austria use plainclothes inspectors on their tram/S-bahn and U-bahn trains and it works good there. You don't really see them coming until they're in your car and say "die Fahrkarte bitte!" And they don't mess around - if you are riding without a ticket, you get a €60 fine, even if you're a tourist and have no clue. It seems sufficient to get people to pay for their tickets and passes because they don't want to risk getting slapped with fine after fine.I can tell you for a fact that Plainclothes inspectors hit trams, S-Bahn and U-Uadan as a mob close to 15 of them at a time.
Riding a tram in Berlin, a mob of people came charging through the doors and thought I was going to have something to me and other riders until they pull out badges as inspectors. They started asking for proof of payment that they started to write tickets to a few right off the bat. I show my 3 day pass and they moved on. By the time we hit the next stop, close to 10 riders had received tickets.
Saw this on a number of systems and size vary as well time of day.
In Austria, watched in uniform police officers clocking speeders while calling out the number of the vehicle and speed with another looking over his shoulder and writing that info as well time and location. I asked why it was this way and was told that takes too much time to stop the vehicle and interfere with the flow of traffic. They go back to the station and hand a list to a clerk who types up the ticket. The next day, that ticket is hand delivery to the owner of the vehicle address. Once delivery, the owner has 30 days to pay the ticket. If not paid in 31 days, a tow truck hock up the car for impound. The owner must now pay for the towing and impound cost on top of the tickets.
Police
I have heard there are places that your vehicle is sold off after X months and the the owner doesn't sees any money left over after all cost are paid out. You can end up spending time in jail after X months for tickets as well. Some fine could cost a person a month or 2 wages, unlike here where it be a few days or a week.
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