Originally Posted by
xenole
Went to the S-Bahn station at Zoologischer Gardens yesterday and bought a one day travel card for €6ish.
Then caught the S7 service towards Alex Platz.
One thing I noticed was that there were no ticket barriers anywhere.
No-one checked tickets either.
Used various U and S-Bahn services throughout the day and nothing.
Same thing with the airport buses. You get on and the driver doesn't ask to see a ticket.
So, is there a point to buying tickets?
On board, there are sometimes inspectors. I'd see them less than on 1/20 trips. Personally, I consider a willful avoidance of getting a ticket (and validating it) to be akin to someone jumping the barriers and skipping payment of the fare in the US: it's a crime. In Germany, not sure but there is a large fine.