If I am checked by ticket inspectors on the bus in Oslo with a ticket that expired over 1 hour ago, how to prove my ticket is actually valid?

Question

There is this rule in Oslo public transport that has me wondering. I am gonna get to the more extreme example in the title of the question near the end, but I will start with an actual example that happened to me today:

Today, I took the metro from the Jernbanetorget to Ullevål Stadion for a quick errand, and got a single use ticket for the trip. This ticket lasts for 60 minutes.

When my errand was done and I was about to hop on the metro for my 15 minute trip back home to Tøyen, I noticed that I still had 5 minutes left on my ticket from earlier. So my ticket would be valid for the first 5 minutes of my trip, but for the last 10 minutes of my trip, my ticket app would say that I had no valid ticket.

According to Ruter:

You may transfer to other means of transport (free transfer) in those zones for which the ticket applies, as long as the ticket remains valid when you get onboard.

Emphasis mine.

I reasoned that my stop at Ullevål Stadion can be considered a free transfer, and that the ticket is considered valid for the entire trip home to Tøyen as well, as long as the ticket is valid at the time of boarding.

It only makes sense that a ticket is valid for an entire leg as long as it is valid at the time of boarding. There are many trips inside Zone 1 for which the fastest route takes longer than 1 hour (such as going from Bjørndal to Voksen Skog). If you could not go on such a journey on a single Zone 1 ticket of 60 minutes, but would have to purchase multiple tickets for a single trip just because the buses are slow, that would be rather unreasonable.

This makes me wonder, though, because there is no way to prove what sort of trip you have been on. (The ticket app does not collect location data, and there are also "offline" travel cards).

As an extreme example, I could have taken the bus or metro from somewhere else in Groruddalen to Grorud, then, with 2 minutes left on my ticket, boarded the 31 bus to Snarøya. Over an hour and nearly 40 stops later, when I am nearly at Snarøya, my ticket should (even though it technically expired over an hour ago), be valid, since it was valid when i boarded the bus.

However, if I am stopped by ticket inspectors, I can not prove this. I might be a travel enthusiast who likes going around Oslo for the views. However, to ticket inspectors it might seem like an unlikely scenario that I boarded the 31 bus with a ticket with only 2 minutes left on it, over an hour ago.

One solution I have thought about is to let the driver know when I am boarding the bus, so that he can vouch for me in case the inspectors do not believe me. However, what about the metro, where one can not talk to the driver?

Answer 1

I have spent two summers as a ticket inspector in Oslo, so this is the "correct" answer for Oslo.

In our (brief) training, we were taught that if someone claims they entered the bus with a valid ticket and this is possible according to the timetable then we should not fine them, however unlikely the scenario.

If the ticket inspector gives you a fine anyway then you can complain online and you won't have to pay it. You must of course show that what you claim is possible.

Answer 2

The tl;dr answer — based on personal experience with similar situations — is at the time you board the bus, take a screenshot of the app if you only have your phone, or even better, take a photo of your mobile with the app activated with some kind of bus identifier in the background, or at least the farebox, should you also have a camera with you (as you might when you are sightseeing).

As a longer answer, in practice, in more casual cultures, a fare inspector probably will listen to what you say, look at their watch, nod, and move on, especially if you clearly are a local. In most places, a long suburban route is unlikely to have fare inspectors because ridership is not high enough to cover the cost of enforcement, either.

However, depending on the culture and the severity of a potential penalty — particularly if you do not speak the local language well or at all — it really isn't that paranoid to document your entry accordingly. If it is an option, you might also just choose to buy a new ticket if you're cutting it close. Transit commonly is underfunded as is.

As a couple of real-world examples:

1. In Vancouver, Canada, before TransLink put in turnstiles on the train, fare inspections were conducted by police and reportedly those without a ticket or with an expired ticket actually could be charged with an offence and compelled to attend court. Vancouver has turnstiles now, thankfully. However, if you are in a city where the penalties potentially are so severe and time consuming, a screenshot or a photo definitely is worth the effort!

2. In Paris, France, I once just purchased a Navigo monthly pass from a local shop. You are required to then take a photo of yourself using a vending machine in the metro and manually affix this physical photo to your card. The photo machine was broken in the nearest metro station, so I used my phone to take a photo of the metro card and the receipt in front of the broken machine with its "out of order" screen visible. Figuring that the odds of getting hassled by a fare inspector on a single trip were unlikely regardless, I went on the train with the plan to use the photo machine at the arrival station.

   Paris, of course, is notorious both for locals jumping turnstiles without payment and for fare inspectors that enforce aggressively at stations with heavy tourist traffic. Despite the single trip, I was intercepted by fare enforcement in a tunnel at the arrival station, but because I had the documentation, I was permitted to go upstairs to use the photo machine in that station without penalty. Had I not taken a photo of the broken machine at the departure station, it likely would have been an expensive and unpleasant encounter.

Ultimately, a little bit of documentation always is a good idea, particularly if you think there might be the possibility of a dispute. Safe travels!