Everyone in Zagreb seems to be ecstatic because of the new public transport ticket and why wouldn’t they be – if your tram or bus ride takes less than half an hour, you only pay 4 kn, which is significantly cheaper than the 10 kn that you had to pay before. The ticket was introduced two weeks ago and it’s been immensely popular since, with people buying them in bulk from newsstands.
However, there’s always a catch, and, in this case, it’s the notorious 268 line (Main Railway Station – Velika Gorica).
The line is one of ZET’s most profitable, with up to 30,000 passengers taking it daily. The passengers regularly complain that the buses are never on time, are too crowded, and that the drivers are rude, with incidents including them stopping the bus to fight with passengers and yell at them. The drivers, on the other hand, argue that passengers don’t buy tickets so they’re forced to open only the first door to the bus, which creates crowds and causes delays.
Zoran Vitas, Večernji list journalist, writes about how he was finally looking forward to not having to pay 10 kn for the three stops that he and other journalists take to get to the office, but the line seems to have found its way around it. So, you go into the tram, validate your ticket, ride it for 10 min, and when you get off the tram and to the bus stop, your ticket is valid for another 20 min, which should be more than enough for three stops. The electronic display tells you that you’ve got 7 min, which is still ok, but the 7 min passes, a new schedule appears on the display, but the bus is nowhere to be found, and so your half hour passes, and you’re left with no other choice but to buy a new 4 kn ticket, meaning that you’re only 2 kn short of the 10 kn ticket you could’ve bought and saved yourself the trouble.
It’s not anyone’s fault, just your bad luck, you think, the traffic in Zagreb is unpredictable, but someone could have warned the 268 drivers (and other lines’ drivers as well, probably) that the 4 kn ticket works only if the buses arrive on time.
This leaves us with nothing else to say but to mention that there’s nothing the mighty 268 can’t work around, not even the 4 kn ticket.
Source: Večernji list
