"Arthur Figgis" ] wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Oct 2005 18:07 +0100 (BST), (Colin
Rosenstiel) wrote:
We had that problem in Warsaw. It seemed easier to walk everywhere
than work out how to buy bus and tram tickets.
Many places seem to assume visitors will use taxis for everything.
That's because many Americans do. And as I have posted before,
IME it is common for non first language English speakers not to
be able to tell the difference between the various English language
countries' accents (strange as it may seem to you and I).
Little kiosks called RUCH sell them.
Them being sufficiently imprecise to non-Polish speakers to decide not
to bother. Or the kiosks weren't open. One or the other.
IIRC on some Polish trams you even need a separate ticket for your
bag.
You do in Milan as well.
Debrecen in Hungary has excellent information on ticketing options in
multiple languages at its tram stops. Unlike somewhere I've forgotten
where I once went, where the tourist-specific literature was only
available in the local language, which was Basque or Slovenian or
something else which visitors would be pretty unlikely to speak.
What I find annoying is some countries[1] insistance on translating,
into multiple languages, the instructions for using the machine (put
money in slot etc), which IMHO a child the age of 10 can work
out for themselves and keeping the complicated zonal rules only
in the home language. How on earth can I "press the button for
the correct ticket for you journey" if you haven't told me how I
can work out what actually is the correct ticket for my journey.
When I went to Charleroi the tram ticket office wouldn't sell me a day
ticket until an English-speaking native stepped in to help me. The
staff were convinced that I must have thought I was in Brussels, as
they thought no-one in their right mind would go to their city.
The Dutch Strippenkaart is in the process of being replaced by a
national all-modes smart card, but I believe it is delayed because of
various problems with it. Denmark has just awarded the same people a
contract for a national smart card.
EDS :-(
tim
[1] Switzerland is top of my hit list, I think there are others.
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK