Leaving Italy without paying a bus fine
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 20 Jul, 2023
- |
Sorry Bro! I’m from Bologna, this kind of "zone ticket" has been introduced 10 years ago and it’s still not clear to me!
Seems like it was probably not clear also to the guy which sold you the ticket, as he sold you a ticket to move out of Bologna, while you probably bought in the city to move within the city.
Said this, It should still be alright because you should be allowed to use that ticket inside the city, for a longer time, as you pay it more than a urban ticket (you paid 2,10€ against 1,50€ of urban ticket). But, as I said, after that 10 years TPer has introduced this new kind of ticket, it’s still not clear to me!
Drivers doesn’t sell tickets, and if they speak english is just a plus, same for the inspectors. Welcome to Italy! 🇮🇹
Every bus has a red machine inside where you can buy a 1,50€ urban ticket for 2€, no change, but most of the time they’re out of work.
TPer is experimenting new black machines where you can buy tickets just by tapping your card but you can find them just on some buses, it’s still a "beta test" but I’ll be very smart in future.
About your UNFAIR fine, I’m afraid you’d have to pay it, I believe they can find you in UK (I also can, as you didn’t hide your DL number from the picture!)
Next time you come to Bologna, PM me, I owe a beer in the name of Italy! (I also live in Fiera district!)
In Europe, they slowly start to send fines to foreign citizens. Having said that, country A would have very limited power to force you to pay if you are leaving in country B. They will send you a lot of letters trying to frighten you that the sky will fall on your head if you don’t pay but the reality is that right now, nothing will really happen. This is especially true since you are in UK and UK is going to leave the European Union.
In most European countries, in order to be able to directly take the money on your bank account if you don’t pay by yourself, a public authority would need to go to the court and have a final court decision. So do you think the Italian public authority would initiate a claim with UK court to achieve that? Certainly not…
There are some agreements that are being set to try to harmonize processes and make it easier for public authorities to collect money from foreign citizens but it is far from being something that is working well because it is always subject to conflict between country A and country B laws. Luckily, in Europe, you are still protected by your home country law while you are there.
And don’t worry about Italy preventing you from leaving the country. The system are certainly not synchronized. And they have way bigger issues to deal with than to chase people like you.
Having said that, if I were you, I would pay the fine while it is still at a reasonable level, even if it is unfair. It is always better to pay when it isn’t too expensive because even if today, nobody will chase you, maybe in 5 years, the process will have evolved and it will be easier for them to recover the money and you don’t want to pay the hard bill at that time…
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘
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