Venice and water buses (Vaporetto)

dave_ave

Being a money saving kinda guy on a recent break to Venice I bought a 3 day travel pass for the water buses (and land buses) to save some money.

But why did I bother?

No one seems to check for tickets and the locals just hop on and off without 'validating' as you are supposed to do.

It makes me think I wasted nearly £60 on 2 passes that I did not really need.

Anyone else had a similar experience?

richardw

Fare avoidance anywhere isn't moneysaving. The locals may have a different ticket that you don't know about.

sunshinetours

Clothes are cheap in Next if you stuff them down your coat and walk out without paying.......

Hope you enjoyed Venice despite your shock at having to pay for public transport

And for what its worth commenting on, all times we have been we have been checked by ticket inspector at least once during our stay

dave_ave

Please don't get me wrong I'm am not advocating fare avoidance, I work in public transport myself. The point I was trying to make was that there seems to be little, or in my case no, checking of tickets. Maybe all the locals have monthly passes, but who knows?

The only people I saw validating tickets were tourists. The instructions are clear on each stop (in English too) - validate your ticket before commencing journey. The 3 day ticket I had only commenced the 1st time I validated it. Now if I was a devious, I could get on and off the buses and IF I was challenged I could say I forgot and validate it there and then.

It's a system really open to abuse, but I guess the company are not too bothered.

Just to take up the first reply - fare avoidance is money saving. The downside is it's illegal.

sunshinetours

dave_ave wrote: »

Just to take up the first reply - fare avoidance is money saving. The downside is it's illegal.

No its not money saving advice as you could get a penalty and criminal record. Money saving is doing something different in a legitimate way that cannot come back and bite ie like buying a young persons railcard for instance or buying a three day pass rather than paying each journey

Tickets barriers were open both ends of my train journey today and staff were busy clearing platforms so I could easily have not bought a ticket but that wouldn't be money saving would it?

Many systems in all walks of life rely of integrity of people to keep things running smooth and there are always those who try and abuse the system - just feel good inside that you weren't one of them

Peter2006

They do check more in Summer than in the Winter months, as I guess rather obviously when there are more people in town there will be more fare-dodgers.

The locals do have a different style of ticket or pass. I know it has changed fairly recently, but when I lived there I could hop on and off without having to validate at all (beyond the initial validation at the start of the month).

As an aside, I can't ever recall a situation when I did have my ticket checked on the vaporetti in Venice! I did see people getting checked, but never myself.

jaymac_2

Tourists pay more than locals in Venice for transport passes and if you don't have one I think they have on the spot fines if you're caught.

phatbear

when i occasionaly use our local train service I dont think I've ever had to show my ticket at either end of the journey, so if I followed your logic I wouldnt bother buying a train ticket?

davidlizard

I have often wondered whether its worth buying a train ticket for the route I take - no barriers either end and rarely a guard. And often the guard will sell you a ticket anyway - rarely the penalty charge (£20 + cost of single) is enforced. And if it was, I would break even if I got caught just over one trip in three.

However I always pay.

Of course, if everyone did this then the railways would soon go out of business!

Concerning the vaporetti in Venice - both the times I have been there I have seen tickets checked - they do seem to concentrate on tourists rather than what I assume to be locals.

colmil

I know this is a it off track with this post, , but I have just come back from Venice and would like to point out to travellers from the airport that the Ligiuana? does get very bumpy for half the journey both ways, for those with an aversion to this might wish to consider the bus?