A passenger had to pay a fare evasion fine despite having bought a ticket.
He warns other passengers because he had overlooked a special rule.
Munich – In the past, Deutsche Bahn (DB) has given its customers one or two reasons to get angry: the trains are often not punctual, customers have problems with their seats or the announcements are incomprehensible.
The list of railway excitement is long and now a problem with the ticket could be added as an additional point.
A DB passenger had to pay a fine of 60 euros for fare evasion, even though he had a ticket.
Deutsche Bahn: Passenger has to pay a fine of 60 euros – despite buying a ticket
Many will be familiar with the situation: You see the track and start to sprint to get it.
In the stress it is often scarce to buy a ticket quickly.
Mobile phone tickets, such as those offered by DB in their "DB Navigator App", are a blessing.
But there is a small catch, as a DB passenger shared on Reddit on March 3, 2023.
Because when he bought a ticket in the app shortly before boarding, he was immediately checked on the train.
"I proudly showed her my mobile phone ticket and didn't think anything of it," the user described the situation when an inspector approached him shortly after he got on board.
But instead of scanning his ticket and walking to the next passenger, she pointed something out.
The timer, which was above the QR code in the top right, showed when the ticket is valid.
In his case, there were still five seconds left until it was valid.
Five seconds that cost the passenger a fine of 60 euros.
"There was no point in arguing, even when the people next to me spoke out in my defense," he wrote.
The inspector accused him of only buying the ticket when the passenger saw her.
Deutsche Bahn tickets: warning of the two-minute countdown
The passenger wanted to warn Reddit users about the same mistake, because this "two-minute rule" was something completely new for him.
Other users in the comments also told of such incidents.
The two-minute counter is important for the control staff so that they can track the time of purchase.
This is a "security and control feature", as Deutsche Bahn writes in its FAQs.
The two-minute countdown "is intended to limit the possibility of late ticket purchases," the company informs on its website.
Because according to the train, the ticket must be bought before the start of the journey.
The time of purchase also depends on the means of transport.
Because in some cases the ticket has to be bought before crossing the platform barrier, such as when using the S-Bahn.
Depending on which transport association passengers are in, the rules for buying tickets may differ.
The 60-second rule applies in the Munich transport association.
Tickets are only valid one minute after purchase.
Perhaps such stories will be less frequent in the near future when the 49-euro ticket is introduced.
(vk)
List of rubrics: © Jens Büttner/dpa
