Ah, nothing like some good union-bashing from the economy journalists. Countries like France, Germany, Spain, Japan among others have much more powerful unions than the US, yet they are able to upgrade their rail infrastructure. Either the article is bull or American unions are for some reason more "evil" than in the rest of the world.
In Chicago the Metra (suburban radial rail line) conductors still manually collect fares and make change on the train while trying to catch fare-dodgers. I've personally been on Metra rides where it was so busy, the single conductor never got to punch my ticket before I disembarked.
Meanwhile the authority is asking the public to help identify people not paying their fares, because they're hurting for revenue.
Who should I look to for an answer to this problem?
The Philadelphia regional rail system (SEPTA) worked similarly. When I used to commute on it when I was a broke student, I would pay the fair maybe once a week. I always had the money on me and was always willing to pay.. but the conductors rarely would make it to me.
Eventually I just started buying monthly passes since I got tired of carrying cash and wanted to use buses too.
> Who should I look to for an answer to this problem?
In the US, unskilled labour costs are lower than in the rest of the industrialized world. Therefore there is less incentive to replace labour intensive jobs like train conductors with electronic systems that have a high initial capital cost. The Nordic countries and Japan have the most industrial robots per worker because wage costs are very high.
These aren't unskilled workers. They are railroad conductors that are paid union scale including pensions. There is also a ticket agent that sits at each station during peak hours. Sometimes multiple agents.
I honestly don't believe the lack of automation on Metra is because ticketing systems would cost more than the agent labor and lost revenue from missed fares.
The honour system for tickets failed, pretty hard, on UK railway systems. Travellers create a variety of schemes to exploit the system as hard as they can.
Auto ticket checking at each end of the journey isn't fool proof either. People buy a cheap local pass for each end of the journey, and travel the long (expensive) in-between leg free. The occasional capture capture and fine still works out cheaper for some journeys.
Switzerland uses the honor system in their public transit and it works.
There are random checks on small routes and long distance routes have a conductor checking tickets.
About 800 are caught each day with invalid tickets which is a very small percentage of total travelers. There are about 1 million travelers on rail per day. The fine is 'only' 100 CHF for the first offence which is very small if you compare it to ticket prices. However subsequent offences have higher fines and you are added to a database which you will stay in for at least 2 years.
About half a million out of almost 8 million residence have a year pass for the entire rail system (General-Abonnemente). Over 2 million have a year pass for half-price tickets (Halbtax-Abonnemente) so any ticket they buy is half price.
It is very nice to just walk in and out of trains, buses, boats without having to go through turnstiles etc.
> Switzerland uses the honor system in their public transit and it works.
We use both an honor system and an RFID card system here in Perth, Australia.
There are often transit guards checking cash tickets and whether you have "tagged on" your RFID card. The fine for not having a ticket/an invalid ticket is AUD$150 (a three-zone ticket (~20km) is about $4.60, for comparison).
You can get checked on a train, (very rarely) on a bus (as the driver watches you tag on), and often at the exit to a station. Most of the bigger stations have gates ("turnstiles") that require you to tag on to get to the platforms.
Here in Japan you use an RFID card when you board and when you get off, and the system charges you the right price. It's instant and effortless, crowds walk past the sensor with a wave of the hand, hardly breaking stride.
The honour system is used more or less everywhere in public transit in Germany, the only exception being long-distance routes. It makes for a much more comfortable experience.
