Stamp It or Pay a Fine: Validating a European Train Ticket — Epoche A2
In much of continental Europe, a paper train ticket is not valid until you stamp it in a small box at the entrance to the platform. The box is usually yellow, orange or green, and it is fixed to a post at about chest height. The problem it solves A paper ticket with no date on it could be used again tomorrow, and the day after, for ever. The stamp ends that. It prints the day and the hour, and from that moment the ticket is spent. The steps Buy your ticket at the counter or from a machine. Find the box before you reach the train, not after. Push the ticket in, printed side up, short end first. Listen for the click, then look: a date and a time must now be on the paper. Keep the ticket until you have left the last station. A ticket bought on your phone usually needs no stamp. If every box is broken, find the guard before the train moves and say so. The classic mistake belongs to visitors: a fine, paid on the spot, with a perfectly good ticket in the hand. Buying is not the whole duty. A ticket becomes a journey only when the machine says when.