B20 BTS cards and pointless bureaucracy

[isaanistical]

My wife informed me this morning that registration is open for Thai citizens to register their BTS cards (Rabbit) in order to qualify for the promised start of B20 maximum fares in the next month or two.

I marvel not so much at the possible xenophobia (to be gleefully pounced on by the AN crowd), but at the sheer pointlessness of trying to restrict access to the fares. This, rather than any perception of anti-farang sentiment, is what sometimes gets to me about living in TH.

 

Clearly it is completely impossible to stop non-Thais from obtaining/borrowing/using a registered card. But that does not seem to occur to the recta who dream up this scheme. My own card is not in my name anyway. I can pick up my wife's card. Our son doesn't live locally; I can use his. Etc etc.

But then there is the implementation of the restriction. I'm told it's strictly one card per Thai (per ID card, one assumes); that will involve record-keeping and surveillance of its own. To police that, will there be inspectors in the system, checking IDs in transit? I can't see that. Again,etc, etc.

So the restrictions are unenforceable but will cost money to implement. It will never have occurred to the said recta who run these things that it would probably be actually cheaper to just let it go, let everyone travel at that reduced fare (which in itself is a very good idea) rather than to add a layer of fatuous bureaucracy (and attendant brown envelopes, of course).

Any cost saving to be weighed against the ill-feeling, bad publicity etc to be garnered by authorities that sometimes really seem to seek out trouble and opprobrium for themselves. 

I'm not generally a Thai-basher but this one has me wanting to become one.

[proton]

Years ago I had a card you could charge up. One day they took it off me as they expired after 5 years, why? Never did get the credit back. Used BTS for the first time in years last week, glad it was only one station far too packed.

[GanDoonToonPet]

Yeah they should just open it up to everyone without the need for a card / registration etc. They did it for the Pink Line last year so they can do it.

 

I don't mind paying extra but I'm just waiting for something like Alipay in China where you just have your QR code scanned on entry / exit.

[isaanistical]

49 minutes ago, GanDoonToonPet said:

I don't mind paying extra but I'm just waiting for something like Alipay in China

well there's not a lot wrong with Octopus in HKG, Opal in SYD or any of a million other city transport payment systems.

But given that about 7 corporations own the railways here, they want to compete with each other which rules out 'co-operation' and divvying up the total take. Pathetic.

[isaanistical]

1 hour ago, proton said:

Never did get the credit back.

and that's their fault?