Yesterday while coming back from denmark by train I observed something interesting. There was a girl next to me(Yes yes, she was beautiful. But thats not the interesting thing). After a while another person came there and said that she was in his seat. After checking both the tickets, it was known that the girl had a ticket for the previous day and not for yesterday. She had committed a mistake while booking the ticket. I thought she will panic since the train had already started. She was cool and said she will wait in the ticketless lounge. The what? I became instantly curious and followed her. She went to the place near the door, where there were seats. Many people were there already.
Within 10 minutes the ticket checker arrived. This girl mentioned her situation to the ticket collector. The ticket collector looked at her old ticket and asked her to pay 200 SEK. Now came the interesting part. This girl didnt have that much money. Immediately she picked her credit card and gave to the checker. He just scanned it in his wireless device. Thats all. She had a ticket. The wireless credit card reader is really cool.
I came to know that in connex trains in sweden, you can buy the ticket after boarding the train. The difference in fare is 50 SEK only and they accept cards. And in case you dont get a seat, you can travel in the lounge till you get a seat. The lounge is not at all bad. Comfortable seats with cup holders, and you can take along your cycles/pets etc.
Lovely facility. So even in last minute if you wish to travel, you can just hop in the train, without any reservation or even an unreserved ticket. Every coach/wagon has a ticketless lounge. On both the sides. Good, no?
What facilities these people enjoy?
15 Responses to “Ticket please!”
on 26 Jun 2006 at 2:56 pm # selvi
Naanum ninaichen… the girl didnt have that much money nnu therinchathum… ungha panam kooduthu uthaivi panningha nnu… credit card ippadi ellam manushangha vazhkaiyil vilayadhuthu… hahhahahahahahahha
onnum mattum nalla theriyuthu… neengha oorukku poghum pothu… she unghalukku nalla adi koodukka porangha nnu
on 26 Jun 2006 at 3:00 pm # Anonymous
Romba ve “steep learning curve-la” intha veliyur payanam ungalai kondu poguthu pole…
Seekarame India vanthudugo…
on 26 Jun 2006 at 3:17 pm # Jacky
Vadivel Parthiban joke than nyabagam varuthu. Nenga koda checking vantha sollalam Na Sweden la ye ticket edukala enna poi Shatabdi la eduka sollringa.
on 26 Jun 2006 at 3:41 pm # vatsan
idu vae india la irundha sooper-a irukkum, the ticketless lounge will have more kootam than the normal seating area. most people will travel without a ticket.
can u make the entire journey in the ticketless lounge? appo sooper, oc la travel pannelam
on 26 Jun 2006 at 3:48 pm # Karthik
Sounds like a great facility. Alas if these could work in India. The underlying thing is that they are able to fulfill the basic needs and hence could go for more value-adds. Here the trains are not enough to accomodate people - long way to go before something like that getting implemented here. Anyway India la anda facility vanda Laloo voda relatives(read cow) ku adha reserve panniduvange
on 26 Jun 2006 at 3:55 pm # vinod
Prabhu what is the name of the trains that run from sweden..is it ICE (Inter City Express) or something else.. (In germany its DeutscheBhan, Belgium- Thalys, France SNCF & RENFE…).
But so far, I haven’t seen such a lounge in these trains (DE, FR & BE), normally you can get the ticket from an unreserved area.
Also the tickets are normally valid for 24 hrs, incase train miss panita you can use the same ticket for the next available train or take break your trip in between with the time slot.
Defn wana travel to scandinavian..sounds cool. neat post
on 26 Jun 2006 at 5:19 pm # priya
Interesting alrite!!
//I became instantly curious and followed her//
Curious only to know what she was going to do abt the ticket? Naan nambala :-p
on 26 Jun 2006 at 5:33 pm # Mukunth
namma oorle ellame ticketless lounge thaan!
on 26 Jun 2006 at 5:34 pm # Mukunth
“There was a girl next to me(Yes yes, she was beautiful. But thats not the interesting thing). “
modern dressa paathu mayangidathey, vaaye therandha koovam!
on 27 Jun 2006 at 5:01 am # poramboke
pattikaatan nagarathukku vantha maadiri iruku un post..
on 27 Jun 2006 at 7:45 am # visithra
interesting info
on 27 Jun 2006 at 6:37 pm # Nirenjan
Aahaa… engeyo poittaanga…
on 02 Jul 2006 at 5:07 pm # chikuado
that’s really cool! i like the buy-your-ticket any time idea.. no hassles of queues and booking in advance.. but the ticket-less lounge is simply outta the world! what an eye for comfort!
on 19 Jul 2006 at 3:19 pm # ramya
awesome! The trains in Europe are just too good. i have travelled in the TGV’s and the metros. They are just superb. Yes, these people enjoy very good facilities.
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