

Labor Rules Snarl U.S. Commuter Trains  - JumpCrisscross
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-27/labor-rules-snarl-u-s-commuter-trains.html

======
bjourne
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.

~~~
joezydeco
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?

~~~
bjourne
> 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.

~~~
joezydeco
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.

------
DanBC
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.

~~~
sschueller
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.

~~~
elithrar
> 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.

