A few months ago I wrote about my love of a local bus route for Last Week in Denmark. I then paid my first (and hopefully last) penalty for riding that very same bus line without a valid fare.
Is it irony or misfortune that the ticket inspector caught me out on my favourite and most frequently used route?
When I travelled that day, I fully intended to pay the fare. I take the 1A bus just about every Thursday to teach yoga — and paid the fare every single other time. I have the Rejsekort receipts to prove it!
It was raining heavily when I arrived at the bus loop that evening and transit signage indicated the 1A would’t leave for another 6 minutes. Unexpectedly, a bus arrived late and quickly prepared to depart again.
I was flustered from getting soaked in the rain and, in my rush to board the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bus, I forgot to check in. I should have noticed that my phone wasn’t using GPS while in transit (a hallmark of an active Rejsekort ticket), but I mostly ignored the screen, focussing instead on catching glances of a double rainbow in the gaps between buildings.
The person who issued the ticket suggested contacting Movia (the company that operates Copenhagen’s buses) to see if the back office could do anything about the penalty. After my anger at getting a fine dissipated a little, I wrote Movia an impassioned message requesting leniency. I thought there was a chance they’d lower (or maybe even waive) the fine given my past history of consistent payment.
Their reply took nearly six weeks.
Unfortunately we are unable to waive your inspection fee
We understand that receiving an inspection fee can be frustrating. Movia’s ticketing system is based on self-service, and it is your own responsibility to have a valid ticket from the start of your journey and for the entire duration of the trip, and to be able to present it upon request.You have checked in too late
The bus departed at 17:51:24 and your check in was not initiated until 18:04:10.You have not been able to show valid ticketing on the day in question. It is therefore correct that an inspection fee has been issued.
A 15-minutes bus ride cost more than I usually spend on transit in a month.
Fares are checked far less frequently on buses than on other modes of transport (it feels as though there’s a fare checker pretty much every time I take the Metro; I don’t think I’d been controlled on a bus since living in Zurich). And, for some reason, fare evasion fines are steeper on buses than they are on the Metro or suburban rail.
This was a case of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, which seems like a contradiction between circumstances and expectations — one of the definitions of irony. Or was it simply bad luck?
Despite Movia’s lack of humanity (at least their email denying leniency was signed by a real person), the sentiments of my Last Week in Denmark piece stand. I still love the 1A, but I don’t think so fondly of Movia’s Case Administrators.
To read the original piece professing my newfound love of buses, click below.
Also annoying that you paid a fine, and the fare for the same trip! (even if the fare was late)
So true!