Tickets please

The Berlin public transport system has a rather odd and overly trusting ticketing system. There are no conductors to buy tickets from as you get on a train, bus, tram or whatever so you buy tickets from the machines at each station, you then need to stamp it to validate it.

Every now and again, conductors dressed in plain clothes will appear on the trains and inspect everyone's ticket. They're a lot like the CIA really, they could be anywhere but you never really know. I've been in Berlin now a little over a week and today was the first day I've seen these people, and they didn't actually check my ticket (German efficiency).

Not having a valid ticket results in a €40 fine. If you look at the numbers you see that not paying ever would save you money provided you got caught less than roughly once every fortnight, provided the punishments didn't get worse. I've heard of people who do this and get away with it. However I'd reason that the system in Berlin is still probably cheaper than paying a large workforce of conductors resulting in less people skipping the system.

Anyway, as fas as I'm concerned, the transport system here is so cheap and reliable that it would be rude not to pay.