Ideas

So yesterday I got inspected twice in the Metro. And both times there were at least two people who got caught without a ticket. That just confirmed what I always knew: it's more profitable to have random inspections than to have a proper ticket-eating system.

For you bastards who don't live in Newcastle, our Metro (haha, "our") works by the honour system... sort of. You can board a Metro wagon without a ticket (as there are no ticket-eating machines beforehand impeding your entry). However, from time to time there'll be inspectors around to check your ticket, and if you don't have a valid ticket (or if you don't have a ticket at all) then you will be fined 20 quid.

So yes, what I was getting at is that if they catch two people without tickets during each inspection (and you can assume that there will be at least 2 per day) then they're probably making more money than if everyone was to buy a ticket. Look at it this way: most of the elderly people have their passes, a lot of the students have their passes and those people who commute to work every morning at 8:30 in the bloody morning have their passes. So the only people that will get caught are those one-off users... and they get charged the fare of at least 6 tickets. Good stuff.

In other thoughts, I just came up with a brilliant idea. Newcastle is perhaps the city with the most flyers per square inch. Annoying as hell, it is. And I bet I'm not the only one who's sick of rejecting flyers or taking them and then throwing them away in the nearest rubbish bin. So I was walking through Northumberland Street with a cara de cañon (to avoid the flyers... works occasionally) and I figured I could put a sign on my cap that says "unless you're handing out cash, bugger off". Sounds like a great idea to me!