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m
→"Fare evader" incident
*give her some form of ID and have her write a citation for not paying my fare
*get off the train, buy a ticket on the platform, and get on the next train
Neither of these options seemed particularly fair or appealing. Getting a citation for a violation which I didn't commit seemed rather ludicrous. Getting off the train wasn't really an option either since Caltrain service on the weekends is hourly, and I was supposed to meet people in Berkeley at 7.
She gave me some time to "think about" what I wanted to do. I'm not really sure what exactly she was thinking when she said this, but there wasn't much to think about. I had paid my fare. Since Translink is designed by the great folks at [http://www.erggroup.com/ ERG],<ref>http://www.erggroup.com/projects/sanfrancisco_1.htm</ref> there wasn't a number that I could call that would tell me (for example) the last transaction on my account (what's worse, the balance provided over the phone isn't up-to-date either, but the closing balance for the previous day), and since I didn't have a camera, there wasn't a picture that I could show her demonstrating that the readers were clearly functional (and deducted money off my account!). She threatened to call the cops, and I told her to go right ahead, also asking her to call someone at the Palo Alto station and have them take a look at the card readers. Obviously, she didn't give a flying fuck about what I wanted and just wanted to show who was the boss, so she simply called the cops and considered her job done.
By this time, we had reached [[w:Belmont (Caltrain station)|Belmont]] station. Passengers got on and off. There was a passenger in our car that apparently didn't have a ticket and went for the citation. In the meantime, the train was held up while we were waiting for the cops to arrive. According to the Belmont PD, they received the call at 4.56. While we were waiting, I struck up conversation with the woman in the seat behind me and explained to her what the Translink program was. Someone from the middle of the car told me to be considerate of other passengers and just get off; I told them to complain to Caltrain customer service. While I'm all about being altruistic and considerate, my time is worth something too, damnit. Why the hell do I have to wait an hour because Caltrain can't get their fare collection system together?
Sarah then proceeded to go on the PA system and announce that the train was being held up due to a "fare evader." This was pretty low, since not only did I pay my fare, but also because she had no basis to shift the blame on me. In retrospect, given Caltrain's response to this, I'm not surprised in the behavior, but it was a bit of a shock to me at the time. Then, a hispanic man told me that it was in my best interest to get off the train before the cops came because when they did, I'd get a citation anyway. This actually freaked me out a little, since I had no idea what the cops were going to do and realized that they would do things first and ask questions later.
