1/12/09 Recent story on fare inspection
There is more to the story than you might think.
Last week there was an article in The Oregonian about a customer who was issued a citation for not paying her fare on MAX. The article took issue with one of our supervisors issuing a citation to a customer who had intended to pay her fare, but was unable to because she allegedly could not locate a functioning ticket vending machine.
No doubt we have challenges with our fare equipment, and we are doing a number of things to improve this. I am very aware of the frustration that this has caused the riding public, and also to our employees in the field who have the challenging job of enforcing our fare policies.
What you didn't read in the article was the fact that this was not the first time the customer had been in this situation. The incident that was reported on last week followed two written warnings and a previous citation—all for the same offense.
I think it is important to know that there are at least two sides to any story. The perception was that our employee was overly aggressive in her enforcement of fare policy; the reality is that some people may believe that paying their fare on TriMet vehicles is optional. In this case, neither could be further from the truth.
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