Great Western Coffee Shop

I was on a train service lady night from the Amsterdam area to Schipol airport. My ticket for the journey cost ^3.40 so not much

On the Secong leg of the trip , which started from Amsterdam central, the ticket checks were very thorough and a tourist in front of me was done for not having a ticket. The total cost - if he had had any money - was ^35

The tourist had no money and claimed he had no ID but given the tourist was British the TM insisted on seeing his passport.

On this service they had two TMs checking tickets - one from each end of the carriage. I suspect this may be a lucrative route for fines :)

I recall from my time living over there that the ticket inspectors are particularly fierce and are not worried in the slightest about confrontation - no-one escapes their attention and excuses (tourist/no-speaky-Dutch/didn't understand the ticket machine etc etc) carry no weight whatsoever. Same goes for the trams & buses in the major cities.

They tend to work in pairs as there are a lot of double deck trains over there, one for upstairs, one for downstairs so no-one can escape! Rare for a journey to pass on the trains without a ticket check, frequent random checks on trams/buses.

That's too much detail...   :o

Paul

Lol Paul - I would normally go back and correct my typo but for entertainment purposes I will live it there !

Chrisr - your recollection in spot on. The British tourist asked the TM how he was supposed to get to Schipol at which point the TM replied "walk" :)

I know they're quite liberal in Amsterdam, but ladies of the night on trains is a new one on me. They'd have difficulty showing their red light - might cause issues in stations!

Allegedly - or So I was told when in Amsterdam by a local - you also have blue lights...I have no personal experience of either colour I must add !

Is this possibly becoming a topic for 'the lighter side' ... ?  :P

Groan :)

But the TVM's seem to work and do speak English

Indeed- and even this Brit with limited knowledge of Dutch TVMS managed to buy a ticket or two :)

Some years ago, one of my professional colleagues was visiting the Den Haag tram people. One evening they took him to dinner out towards the beach, and explained that they'd come here so that he could watch their plain clothes revenue protection team hit the well-filled last tram back into town.

They met up with the revenue protection people in a bar round the corner. My colleague gets handed over to one of the team. She explains that they can't check the whole tram, otherwise there'd be a riot. Instead it's her job to identify two people (from their body language) who she can arrest at her door. The others will do the same at the other doors.

She is a young woman, late teens, with a punk Mohican haircut. My colleague is predictably embarrassed (he's a very Brit suit) on account of looking like her sugar daddy.

Anyway, they board the tram and it sets off. First thing the driver knows about the team being on board is when their uniformed colleagues board, three or four stops on. The guy at the front produces his warrant card and leans across the driver to switch off all of the ticket cancellors. The lady with the Mohican is joined by one of her uniform colleagues. She's identified her two targets, produces her warrant card, and demands to see their (non-existent) tickets. They're off the tram and soon being processed in the uniforms' van.

Whole thing is done v quickly (to avoid a riot). A quieter tram continues its journey. My colleague rejoins the guys from Den Haag.

"Where did you get her from?" he asks.

"Oh it's terribly simple" say the locals. "She was caught travelling without a ticket some months ago. She has a choice of a hefty fine or of doing community service. One of the ways in which she can do her community service is by working as a plain clothes inspector".

Excellent!

Poacher turned gamekeeper. With a bit of an embarrassment factor. Should any of her peers see her doing this community service, they may well think twice about effing it on public transport.

Never work over here though. Six months would need to be allocated just for track and rolling stock safety training, conflict avoidance training, PACE...

...then another 5 years training to get one's head around the fares system to ensure the honest aren't penalised. 5 years plus is how long I've been at it and I'm still discombobulated* all too often.



*My word of the day.  ;D

Discombobulated ? I haven't heRd that for a few years ! Now where's my tickling stick ?

I suspect that are probably more than a few readers that haven't got a clue what I am talking about :)

Was that not Discomnockerated if we are talking about Ken Dodd.

My esteemed forum colleague, Chris from Nailsea, prefers being discomnadgerated I believe.  :P

The above and the story recollected by worcester_passenger are so typically Dutch! The 'directness' takes some getting used to at first, but it certainly makes a pleasant change to how things are done in the UK, only after you have worked out that they're not just being aggressive, that is!

On reflection you may well be right :)

Day Return to Notty Ash please !

Is that with or without tax sir ?!

On the topic of plain clothes revenue protection staff... I have fallen foul of them in the UK before. After a minor pocket dance and finding my ticket just a little further down my top pocket. Out of all the tickets I could have produced. The RPI really wasn't expecting the return portion of a First Off Peak. Then quizzed me on my Railcard. I provided it. I think they seemed genuinely upset that they thought they had me good and proper. When I had a better hand the whole time.

The same member of staff now has a vendetta against me as it is the same staff member who says you cannot use a Disabled Railcard in conjunction with a First Class ticket. Also who seems to believe that I am deliberately abusing and exploiting restriction code LC on the return portion of an FSR by using a peak time train to London, then having a long layover until the ticket becomes valid from Paddington.

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As for language barriers. One of my gamer friends in my clan is Dutch. We also have a few who are German. A few have said to me they are all rather rude. However they are all nice people, just to the point.

I supported a company using some German software in the past. When we had a problem with it, I would send a request to Technical Support Level 1 - Only to get back an email of around 6 paragraphs from their Indian Support Centre saying how they had worked "diligently" and "liaised with several agents" and were unable to resolve the issue so they had escalated it to Level 3 - The Germans.

The Germans would send me an email like this:


Does that seem rude? Well actually I don't think so at all. It's blunt and to the point. The problem is fixed and that's all I need to know.

Ok I am about to take my own post way OT now but given TTs post about dealing with the Germans I couldn't help agreeing with him given that I have spent the last 3 days on site in Munich troubleshooting IT problems. I would agree with TT that they are to the point and in my case it saved a lot of faffing around because we both new where we stood.

I think I mentioned the war once but hot away with it :)

Conversely, the British habit of being polite, not wishing to upset anyone's feelings, and understatement etc comes over in many countries as being shifty, duplicitous and untrustworthy.

Reminds me of working on a project involving a number of nationalities where the first draft of a report in English made frequent use of the word 'demand'. I pointed out that as a group we couldn't demand anything but request or recommend. It had been written by a French speaker where demander has no overbearing connotations and indeed is quite weak ( more like 'ask'). That landed me with the job of being the language editor for English nuances ....

I can see why a red light might flatter the vendor's skin tone, but I thought blue lights were to stop you injecting drugs.  (they always used to have blue lights next to the driver on buses didn't they)