Platform tickets

Some years ago I ran into an Indian anachronism at Pune railway station. Our extended family was there to drop off a cousin who was going to IIT Madras. Before I could enter the railway station, I had to buy a platform ticket.

I realize that the platform ticket is not a revenue stream but a mechanism to trap ticket-less travel. I can almost imagine a day back in the 1950s where the ticket collector stopped a person to check his ticket and he claimed to be a local who was here to pick up a relative who didn't show. I can also imagine the cogs turning inside the intelligent brain of a Mr. Iyer in the Administrative services who came up with this, 'So you are here to pick someone up you say. Show me proof.'

Nowhere else in the world, okay I have not been to Pakistan and Bangladesh and Nigeria, do we have to buy platform tickets to get onto the railway station. Tickets are checked on the train. But trains in India are crowded you say. It may not be possible to check everyone's ticket on the train. Hence the second check when you try to exit the station. Fair enough; but do you see the malaise this breeds and how it sets precedence for ridiculous procedures elsewhere. Indian airports had platform tickets too until the fear of terrorism gave cause to the government in its infinite wisdom to disallow all but holders of a valid ticket from entering the airports. Then things got really weird. With e-tickets, I am sure someone figured out that it is easy to edit your ticket and to print a copy for a friend who might want to see you off at the airport. This second ticket does not need to get you onto the aircraft, just onto the concourse. The government doesn't like you out-thinking them. So we have a new procedure. Once you enter the airport - you cannot leave unless escorted by an airline staff member who has to vouch for the fact that they could not let you board the plane.

Reminds me also of the guy who checks that your passport has been stamped with the correct arrival date by the immigration staffer, and that other guy who stands at the exit beyond customs and collects the little form you filled out on the plane. And the guy who designed that form, and the guy at the printing machine that prints them, and the courier who delivers those forms to the airlines. Oh and the two CISF guys who unlock the glass door to the aerobridge when the airline staff wants to begin boarding the aircraft, and the locksmith who comes running when the CISF staff cannot on some occasions unlock said door.

Aren't you happy that your tax rupees are hard at work, with all these employment opportunities being created.