Dear Melbourne Public Transport Officials
Will you give me a fucking break! It's 6:30am and I've only just woken. It's a miracle I actually put my pants on this morning, let alone stick my little ticket into some god forsaken machine so that you can keep track of my movements.
Besides, it's not like I'm a fair evader - for one, I don't wear one of them dodgy orange shirts with "FARE AVADER" scrawled across it. I had in my possession two tickets. One which had expired little more than 6 hours ago and one which had not (as yet) been validated. This doesn't make me a criminal and this doesn't warrant a fine of $154.
I think the current definition of fare evasion needs to be seriously looked at. According to the legal mumbo in your pamphlet, you are a fare evader if you exhibit any of the "following behaviours":
I may be over reacting, but I think this is bloody outrageous! I purchased the two tickets, paid good money for them - doesn't that mean that I've actually paid the fare? Doesn't that show that I am a fare paying passenger? Just because I failed to validate the new card "upon boarding the vehicle" I'm being penalised and treated like the scum of the earth. And anyway, the only reason they ask (now demand) that a ticket be validated upon every trip is to "monitor the number of passengers on a particular route". It'll costs me $154, no questions asked, no chance of appeal, just because I've fucked up their statistics.
AND ANOTHER THING! Just because your "Authorised Officers" have the power to arrest and detain, it doesn't give them the right to try and intimidate passengers. You people are acting like Nazis - and I mean that quite literally - I may not have been around during WWII, but I've seen that contemptuous look on the faces of Nazi Officers and I am certain that if it were in your power, you would have all us "fare evaders" loaded up into cattle trains and shipped off to Auschwitz.
It could be worse I suppose, I could have ended up like this chap: http://theage.com.au/news/national/rough-ride-for-commuter/2005/09/14/1126377360222.html
Besides, it's not like I'm a fair evader - for one, I don't wear one of them dodgy orange shirts with "FARE AVADER" scrawled across it. I had in my possession two tickets. One which had expired little more than 6 hours ago and one which had not (as yet) been validated. This doesn't make me a criminal and this doesn't warrant a fine of $154.
I think the current definition of fare evasion needs to be seriously looked at. According to the legal mumbo in your pamphlet, you are a fare evader if you exhibit any of the "following behaviours":
- No ticket
- Expired ticket
- Defaced/altered ticket
- Wrong zone or zone over-ride
- No valid concession
- Ticket not initially validated
I may be over reacting, but I think this is bloody outrageous! I purchased the two tickets, paid good money for them - doesn't that mean that I've actually paid the fare? Doesn't that show that I am a fare paying passenger? Just because I failed to validate the new card "upon boarding the vehicle" I'm being penalised and treated like the scum of the earth. And anyway, the only reason they ask (now demand) that a ticket be validated upon every trip is to "monitor the number of passengers on a particular route". It'll costs me $154, no questions asked, no chance of appeal, just because I've fucked up their statistics.
AND ANOTHER THING! Just because your "Authorised Officers" have the power to arrest and detain, it doesn't give them the right to try and intimidate passengers. You people are acting like Nazis - and I mean that quite literally - I may not have been around during WWII, but I've seen that contemptuous look on the faces of Nazi Officers and I am certain that if it were in your power, you would have all us "fare evaders" loaded up into cattle trains and shipped off to Auschwitz.
It could be worse I suppose, I could have ended up like this chap: http://theage.com.au/news/national/rough-ride-for-commuter/2005/09/14/1126377360222.html