A Question For Flyertalk's German Citizens
 

Simple question: The ticket machine for public transport at NUE was broken this evening (refused to accept any coins or notes) so I had to get a taxi to my hotel. Would it have been legal for me to just get on the U-Bahn and then buy a ticket at the connecting station?

In Geneva we usually tell the driver, who on less busy routes will wait at the next station to allow buying the ticket there. This would however not be practical with the U-Bahn.

Are you sure there was only one machine? There are usually two or three at every entrance.... Or were they all out of order?

There was only one ticket machine in evidence, just outside of the arrivals hall. I've spent too many nights in Nuremberg and have only ever forgotten to buy/validate a ticket once. I tend to be quite paranoid when it comes to tickets in Nuremberg because the only time I've ever seen the ticket inspectors was the one and only occasion that I'd forgotten to validate my ticket.

The correct thing would have been to make a note of the machine number and then tell the driver of the train that it was not working. He might have suggested to you to get off at the next stop to buy a ticket and take the next train or told you not to worry. If you were checked by a ticket controller, you would probably have a good chance if you let it be know that you told the driver and have the number of the machine that was not functioning.

How much did you pay for your taxi? The charge for not having a ticket on the U-Bahn is €40. Sometimes it's worth the risk ;)

Cheers,
Floris

Thanks for that information. The taxi was only 12 eruos so it wouldn't have been worth risking a 40 euro fine (albeit a very small risk). In fact, I didn't realise that the hotel I'm staying at is so quick via taxi so I'll probably use this mode of tranport for getting from the hotel to the airport from now on (we're talking 10 minutes in a taxi instead of over half an hour on the public transport).