Third week as an SBB trainee conductor. My supervisor Brunner has spent the entire training period telling me to “stop running to him like a lost puppy” and “trust the system.” Cool. Tonight he lets me loose on the 22:10 IR to Luzern while he disappears into carriage 4 with a copy of 20 Minuten he thinks I don’t know about. I’m working through carriage 2, scanning tickets. Scan, beep, green. I’m basically a Swiss German Terminator at this point. Then I get to this guy. Window seat. Holds up his phone. I scan it and get some amber screen I’ve never seen before. Something about a train number discrepancy. His ticket says IR2643. My device says… honestly I’m not sure what my device says because I panicked. “Sir, I think you’re on the wrong train.” He looks at me like I just told him Migros is better than Coop. Starts pulling up the SBB app, push notifications, the timetable, his ticket confirmation — basically building a legal case in real time on his iPhone. And all of it looks correct. But people are watching. The lady across the aisle. The old guy one row back. And Brunner’s voice is in my head: Show uncertainty and you’ve lost the carriage. So I double down. Like an idiot. I print the fine. He takes it from me the way you’d accept a parking ticket on Christmas morning. I immediately go find Brunner between carriages. “I think I made a mistake, can you —” “Did you issue it?” “Yes but —” “Then it’s issued. He calls the number on the receipt. I’ve got drunk football fans in carriage 4.” Gone. Didn’t even break stride. I spend the remaining 40 minutes to Luzern avoiding carriage 2 like it owes me money. Get home. Open the SBB app on my own phone. IR2643, 22:10, Platform 6. One train to Luzern. Not two. There were never two. So now somewhere in Luzern there’s a guy writing an angry post on r/switzerland with a folder of screenshots that prove he was right, and I’m lying in bed at midnight knowing the Revenue Service Centre is going to side with him immediately because he literally had the correct ticket for the correct train and I fined him because I didn’t understand an amber screen and was too embarrassed to say “I don’t know” in front of six passengers. Brunner’s going to ask how the shift went tomorrow. I’m going to say “fine.” Technically not a lie. There was, in fact, a fine. submitted by /u/bonfraier
Originally posted by u/bonfraier on r/Switzerland