Suuuuure They're There For Our Safety

Posted: Tue, 11 October 2005 | permalink | No comments

Where practical, I tend to get around Sydney using trains. Over the past probably year or so, it's gotten hard to get around on trains without meeting some Transit Officers. These are effectively security guards with a more consistent uniform -- they're not sworn police officers, and don't appear to have any real purpose other than to look menacing, check that we're paying our tithe to the Train Gods (in the form of exorbident ticket prices) and occasionally stop people from going to the bathroom (don't ask).

Another thing started appearing at the same time as these Strange Figures In Grey -- posters and stickers all over SchittyRail property saying "Police and Transit Officers patrol CityRail Trains and Stations for your Protection" (or words roughly to that effect).

Today, on the way home from work, I once again encountered the Ticket Troublers. Waved my ticket at them, they decided that the squiggly lines on it might be reasonable, and wandered off. Less than 10 minutes later, another group comes through, again checking tickets. A woman sitting next to me said "gee, we just got checked". One of the TTs asked "How long ago?" and "which way did they go?". Having gotten answers of "less than 10 minutes ago" and "the way you just came", these Protectors Of Our Transport decided that there was no point checking any other tickets, and got off the train at the next stop without checking the rest of the train.

Obviously, since our tickets were all in good order, we weren't worth Protecting any more.


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