Fined for having the wrong MVV transport ticket

Hi TT,

Having read some of the threads about ticket fines in Germany I am at a loss in regards to my situation. I had a "KundenKarte Ausbildung" because I am undertaking a compulsory Praktikum. I have a card valid for ring 3 (I have only just worked out this ring system). But was under the impression it was valid for all of innenraum. Believing that I had legitimate coverage to travel I took the MVV I was caught and fined 40 Euros. However the guy who fined me did not explain to me why I had been fined. He just muttered about upgrading a card because it transpired I was in ring 2 travelling from ring 3.

Do I have to pay this thing or not, the guy took down my address and seemed pretty pissed off. I am at a loss because its not like I was caught not buying a ticket it was just a genuine case of misunderstanding coverage. To upgrade to coverage of all rings would only be another 5 euros a month. Therefore would I have to pay just the cost of the upgrade of the full fine and then the price of the upgrade!

I know for starters in the UK a fine is not valid if you do not understand why you receive it. Is this the same in Germany or not. Or am I just fighting a lost cause! Please help !!

Yup. Probably. Ignorance of the law is no defence.


I hope Jimbo is not lurking anywhere today, as he will have the correct reply to this.

If it makes you feel better the buggers got me as well:

Rant: petty minded German rail officials

Paid for ticket. Valid ticket. But I did not have the mystery blue card to go with it that is a requirement.

Where where you caught ?

Innerraum is actually rings 1 complete through to 4.

In total there are 16 rings.

I think it is not a fine. But an excess charge. A default fare if you are not carrying a valid ticket.

Anyway. They will always book you regardless of your excuse. You are supposed to go to the payment place at the Hauptbahnhof and tell them your excuse and show them your ticket. They will then reduce your charge to a small amount.

The €40 is not a fine. It is the standard price of a valid ticket if they have to sell you one on board the train.

And if a ticket inspector catches you in the UK without a valid ticket which includes using a ticket in zones where it isn't valid, they will allso impose such charges.

It's a pity you got caught.

Ignorance of the law is no defence.

I love when people say this.. Say if (Insert Country you live in) comes up with a new law, that could affect many people, and is for something trivial, and nobody bothers to tell people about it, How do you know you actally broke the law until you have already done it and are sitting in jail awaiting Execution, etc.

With all the shits thats happened in the last 6 years, many countries have enacted many new "Secret" laws and haven't told anybody what they are or what the punishments is. They just let you break the "Secret Law" then throw the book at you..

Am T strange for thinking there is something wrong with the entire "Ignorance of the law is no defence." thing or what???

I was caught on the U2 coming from hauptbahnhof. I dont think you can really say I was ignorant of the law as I still had a ticket was just under the impression it was valid when it wasn't. Whats the point of paying for half a ticket if your still going to get caught might as well not pay at all. You catch my drift.

Cheaper?

Dude, If you have a valid ticket for Ring 1-3 and you were in those rings when you were stopped, then you are Legit (Unless you were traveling outside the allowed time on an Isarcard 9uhr Ticket).. Goto the MVV Kunden Center at poki-street and explain the prob. and see if they waive the fine or reduce it, "due to possible Checker incompentence" Hopefully the Ticket Checker Didn't Lie on the Reciept you got about why/where you got the fine.

Cheers for that mate will check it out after work!

I think there is a thread similar to this in the adult forum. Only the guy was riding the u2 naked but had the proper tickets. Is this the same case?

yeah, but he said his ticket was only valid for ring 3... or that's the way i read it, anyway

Batman how did you know this happend to me before. I stay away from the adult form because of the nakedness!!! So do you have a bat suit?

OK, Misread it... Yup.. Matt if your ticket was only for Ring 3, and you got busted going from Ring 3 to 2, then your ##*&@$^@

I know jack all about rings and that, but my money is that the ticket inspectors knows the rules better than our man. Shit happens.

Its one of the costs of living in Germany as an auslander - special "ignorant foreigner tax".

As a couple of people noted, the €40 is not a fine, but an increased fare. However, someone who repeatedly gets caught without a valid ticket may end up being charged with a criminal offence. Best not to make a habit of it.

why did you think that? if you had a valid ticket for rings 1-3, then you're pretty much covered for all the innenraum. who helped you buy your ticket?

"Pretty much", yes. But "pretty much" isn't completely. Most TTers could live most of their lives on a 3 Zone, 2 Zone or weven 1 zone Isarcard. But places like Hasenbergl, Föttmanning, the west of Pasing are in Zone 4.

that's why i wrote "pretty much". i used to have ring 1-2, that was sufficient for me, but i also knew where ring 2 stopped. if he knew the ring system, then he should have known. besides, you can't just buy ring 3 can you? you would have to buy rings 1-3 or not?

Yeah, but he said he was in ring 2 travelling from ring 3.

Can you buy a ticket which is only valid for ring 3?? Or would it always be 1-3?

yep you can buy a single ring only. the thing to do here is go to pocci strasse plead your case ie, really fucked it up cos i'm new in town and slightly lost and they'll probably reduce your fine down to 20 euros. oh and be nice.

aghhhs shite and see urchins, iz a be forgettin the dayz about the pirate lingo. forget me advice you yellow livered land lubbers and sons of whores. next time them officers of penal law check your ticket, make em walk the plank. rape their women and send the train burnning to the depths of the ocean. argggh

When ur busted ur busted...they got me on a Saturday night with a couple of beers in my belly and a kebab on its way there. The inspector in question needed my information but was somewhat distressed by the ongoing munching of said kebab. Each time she took one step back, citing - I believe - garlic sauce leakage, I took one forward...bless her, we waltzed half-way down the platform and I damn near finished my kebab before all the formalities were completed. She was definitely unamused but, as I pointed out to her at the time, if you don't like kebabs, keep out of the kebab shop...or somesuch.

You can buy any combination of zones after the minimum which is two adjacent zones.
I thought the OP had 1-2 but was caught in Zone 3.

As someone mentioned above the price premium to upgrade like what I do to 1-4 is possibly worth it becasue you know you have ALL of the City of Munich and a couple of those "Speckgurtel" villages like Haar etc.

RECAP: Before this get to outta wack..

The OP, only had a valid ticket for Ring 3.
The OP, Was stopped and fined for an invalid ticket on an Ubahn heading into/in Ring 2.

Logic would say that if Station A is in Ring 3 and the next station is in Ring 2, then your ticket is nolonger valid.
(Half way thru the trip)


Not a valid ticket for 1-3...

by gorrie he's right !

It should state on your ticket that it is valid 'from' and 'to' a particular zone. So if you live in '3' and work in '2', your ticket allows you cheap travel from 3 to 2 and back. Thou shalt not venture into zone 1, there be the fibiddden zone !

generally,i would advise people to buy tickets at the moment. i have been checked three times on the U bahn since thursday.

Yes I have a bat suit. Did I mention i am an au-pair?

A tip is to do as my co-worker does, everytime she gets caught without a ticket on the U-Bahn, she starts to cry. That makes them feel sorry for her, and they just tell her to buy a ticket the next time.

But maybe you have to be female to get away with it? Life is unfair

Doesn't always work

That is pathetic.

I've never seen it work and damned glad of it. I hope she gets busted by the same people and they recognise her.


Glub help you if you ever complain around here about women being treated unfairly.

woof.

Don't assume that girls always cry just to get out of things. Sometimes we cry over the most inane things and really can't help it. In a case like this I'd be more embarassed about my crying than getting the ticket but it's possible that I still wouldn't be able to stop myself.

You know me better than that, ER. But in the case of mia's friend, it's intentional and fraudulent, and mia clearly condones such action.

woof.

OK, I just want to add, that she is a co-worker, not a friend. And the reason I wrote it, was that i was so amazed about hearing a grown up doing such a thing, and that she wasn´t ashamed about the hole thing when she told me about it ages ago.

The thing about having to be female to get away with it was true, I don´t think she would have gotten away with it with just a slap on the hand if it had been a man instead. But the adding of life beeing unfair, was meant to be ironic!

So just for the record I do not condone her behaviour.

I know you but I just wanted to point out that women get a lot of flack for crying especially from men who don't understand why we would cry over trivial things. I can't count how many times I've been accused for using tears as manipulation tool when they were in fact very genuine (and had I been able to stop them I would have)

Slack? Really? On reflection I guess you mean flack.

oops sorry, I meant flack.

*runs off crying*

Men are socialised of course into NOT showin their emotions, not that we are "naturally" stiff upper lipped.

I'm new in town and I have one of those blue striphen cards, I have to admit I dont think I have used it right since I got here, especially in the first week when I was only stamping it once per trip, I guess i'm lucky I haven't been caught yet. Next week I'll get my Isar card so then I should be safe. Does anyone know how the blue striphen cards are actually surpose to work?

Never had one, but probally one stamp a day not one stamp per trip.

With the Stripe card it's 1 strip for every 2 Sbahn stations or 4 Bus/tram stops or something. The Details are printed on the Ticket FFS. If you can read them, as someone who can.

Dude, how wrong can you be? Are you trolling me? The stripe card is based on zones 1-4. The Stammstrecke alone is 7 stations long, all in Zone 1. One stripe for up to two stations OR two stripes per zone. Quit being a dick.

woof.

i can get from erding to hbf on 6 and that's at least 15 stops, so it's not based on the number of stops. i believe it's based on the major rings and crossing them, but beyond that (being a country bumpkin and munich one big ring) i couldn't tell you with any authority.

I hate that stipey card thing. It's confusing and I don't actually think the prices are that great, are they? I ususally just end up buying a Wochenkarte.

SPEAKING OF...

Did you know that if it's Thursday and you'd like to buy a weekly ticket for this week and you go to the newspaper shop in the Ubahn station and say "Hi. Can I get a Wochenkarte, please?", they automatically give you a ticket for next week without even bothering to mention to you that it won't be valid til next week?

It doesn't make sense. If you buy a weekly ticket on Thursday for the current week, you still get 4 days' worth of use out of it. So why do they give you next week's ticket without so much as double checking which week you'd like to have (like the ticket machines do)? And why is there no sign anyone warning you? It happened to me a few months ago and it was one of those tickets where the dates aren't on it, only the Week Number (which...who actually uses the system of week numbers?) and then I got checked on the u-bahn. And was extremely surprised, irritated and pissed off all at the same time when the guy handed me a ticket. Fookers.

Edit: I paid the fine and realize I was travelling without a valid ticket. I'm ok with that. But I think it's a bit underhanded and dirty the way they sell them.

What Darkknight said is correct, you can go 2 U or S-Bahn stops or 4 bus/tram stops on one. This is a Kursstrecke. It also works on zones though, so you can travel once anywhere in Zone 1 by stamping two.

Again, Read the F'ing rules, which are printed on the ticket. If you don't understand German, then ask someon who deos for help. . EOD
And yes, using the Strip card for long trips, is not cost efficient. Get a zone ticket instead, if you pay with EC card the ticket price
is even cheaper than the cash price.

Depends on how long your journey is. The more stops you have, the more stamps you need on your Streifenkarte. If you can read German it shouldn't be a problem as it's explained in every bus, tram or train...

Pedants Corner:

The one strip/short hop on a Streifenkarte is "for up to four stops not more than two of which may be U Bahn or S Bahn"

eg:

Donnersbergerbrücke - Sendlinger Tor:

On the tram 16/17 from Donnersbergerstrasse to sendlinger Tor direct: NOT a Kurzstrecke as it is more than 4 stops.

One the S Bahn to Hbf and then the U1/2: NOT a Kurzstrecke as it is more than 2 U/S Bahn Stops.

One the S Bahn to Hbf and then tram 16/17: YES, a Kurzstrecke as it is 4 stops not more than 2 of which are S/U Bhan.

End Pedants Corner.

Edited for minor copy / paster error.

You would be be correct if it was one S Bahn stop from Donnersbergerbrücke to HBF, however it is two (Hackerbrüke, HBF) - unless you don't count the end stop, but I didn't think that was the case.

the system is very confusing and i always have the feeling that is expensive.
(correct me if i am wrong here) but when looking at other major cities in europe, the price is okay. paris and london are expensive. a bus journey in london starts at 1.50 pounds now.