Jim Cameron is the chairman of the Connecticut Metro-North Rail Commuter Council and he has a thing or two to say about paying your tickets on the train even when not asked by the conductor. Cameron says the biggest complaints — “after a lack of seats on rush hour trains and the smelly bathrooms” is uncollected tickets. He says “assengers on the train get really miffed when they’ve paid for their ticket, but they see others getting a free ride.” This typically happens because the conductor fails to punch the seat check — those colorful little tags that say how many passengers are in a row and their destination. When Cameron sees a conductor miss someone he points it out.
I know for me there was a long time after the wildcat strike — and that was a while ago — when I purposely withheld my ticket until I was asked for it. It’s not really an uncollected ticket if I have a monthly pass but how does the conductor know. That was a long time ago and I have since forgiven the union for the wildcat strike. This got me wondering where Talk of the Sound readers come down on this. Have you been skipped? Did you volunteer to pay? How would you react if the conductor missed you and Jim Cameron was behind you re-directing him to your seat?