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Germany does transit right
For the millions of Philadelphia-area residents who ride SEPTA, this is the winter of our discontent. But on a recent trip to Germany, I had a chance to sample an alternative to our struggling public-transportation system.
My son, Marc, a junior at Temple University, is studying abroad for a year at the University of Hamburg. Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, he spent time shepherding my wife, my daughter and me around this north German metropolis of 2.6 million souls. We relied on Hamburg's buses and trains.
Without exception, when riding the subways, surface trains and buses, we encountered on every platform and at every bus stop a digital display that gave the route number, destination, and time of arrival (updated minute-to-minute) of the next conveyance. Trains and buses were almost all new and modern; they were uniformly spotless. But most notable was that Hamburg's transit system depends upon the honor system.
As with SEPTA, passes can be purchased for daily, weekly or monthly riding privileges. But there's one great big difference: In Hamburg - and this also proved to be true in Berlin, where we spent a day touring Germany's capital - no driver, conductor or turnstile attendant checked the tickets and passes. No, this is not a typographical error. And, no, I wasn't hallucinating under the influence of all that great German beer. No one at all regularly checks up on riders or collects their tickets.
According to my son, who after a semester on the scene should know, transit police periodically spot-check selected stops to see who's trying to scam free rides. In a week's worth of riding around the city, making frequent switches from one route to another, we never saw a single transit cop. We fastidiously bought our daily passes but never once were asked to present them for inspection. Had we been so inclined, we could have ridden for the week for free.
How can Hamburg - and I presume, based on our brief Berlin excursion (where, once again, we were never challenged), other German cities - maintain a first-rate transit system on an honor code? First, the system is well-funded by public officials who recognize the value of this municipal infrastructure, and free transit-stop parking is subsidized by neighboring merchants. SEPTA, meanwhile, hopes Philly's former mayor, now our governor, can shift highway funds to bail it out, sparing us the fare hikes and service cuts. At best, we stagger from crisis to crisis.
Second, based on my son's observations of who presents their passes and who scoots during the inspectors' rare spot checks, the vast majority of riders refrain from cheating.
So, OK, maybe I am reminded of that terrific scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Harrison Ford tosses the Gestapo agent out the window of the zeppelin and then explains to the shocked passengers, "No ticket." You'll recall that every one of those good folk dives into a pocket or purse and whips out a ticket.
In other words, yes, this honor system may be a "German" thing. If you have a hard time seeing it work in Philly, well, I'm inclined to agree with you. But Hamburg's transit system prospers under a social contract between public officials and passengers who are willing to honor a code of mutual financial responsibility that for Philadelphia is sadly lacking.
James Ottavio Castagnera is a Philadelphia lawyer, writer and university administrator.
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