Akira and I were late for the Schofields train, and we were dashing across the upper level to get to the ticket barriers. I put my ticket in, and it showed up as Not Valid. Akira told me to try the one next to it (she couldn't get through either) and it again showed up as Not Valid. I tried the one next to that and it again showed up as Not Valid.
Finally, by that point the train was on the verge of leaving, and we went over to the wide gates.
Two barrier ladies were sitting and letting people through. One of them asked us as we approached, why our tickets weren't working. If I were feeling snarky right now I'd comment on the fact that obviously we wouldn't know why the ticket barriers were malfunctioning because clearly our magnetic strips were perfectly fine. But I'm content - on with the story...
Akira put her ticket into the barrier at the lady's gesture, and it showed up as Not Valid. Hers has been doing this for several months now because for some reason it's registered as stolen by Cityrail machines...even though it's obviously not because she has it. Strange. Anyway, I put my ticket in as well, just to further prove the point. It showed up as Not Valid.
The ladies nodded and opened the barrier, and Akira walked through, but then I stood there, because...my ticket hadn't come back out.
At which point I turned to them and said my ticket was stuck in the machine.
The one sitting down looked at me as if I were an unobservant old person who had memory issues, and pointed at my hand (which was holding my pass holder) and said: "Look you're holding it in your hand. It's right there! Just look!" and she had obviously mistaken my bus pass for my train pass, because I patiently explained that this-is-my-bus-pass-the-machine-ate-my-train-pass-please-help-and-move-faster-because-we're-students-who-have-to-catch-trains-on-time. Minus the latter segment.
Honestly though, I'm not complaining, just commenting and stating a fact: Those two moved as if we were just discussing the growth rate of grass, not running for trains. The barrier lady in front of me asked her colleague, "where's the key?" The other one looked around slowly, glancing, looking with some sort of annoyingly lax mode, and finally found the keys on the tiny desk.
They opened the side, and then realised that my ticket was actually stuck in the sticking-it-in-slot place. So they tried to pull up the top to get at it, but FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON it was stuck and broken and wouldn't open and it started getting awkward for me standing there, watching them struggle.
The two of them were just wrenching at it, trying to pull it up in this sort of awkward way that didn't look very insistent or hurried in any way - just...you know...day out in Slothviille.
Eventually, about two minutes of reluctant pulling and awkward watching later, one of them waved over to these two police officers who were about two metres away and asked if they could help.
The first man came over, and he was really tall, and said, "what's wrong with it?" and one of the ladies explained that it was broken, and it usually just "lifts up" like so *she gestured in a sort of way that is supposed to indicate extreme mobility*. This police officer, and I'm not exaggerating when I describe this, put his fingers in the gap and pulled up so weakly that I swear he did not put any force or exertion into the effort. His fingers just slipped right up and he shrugged.
I legit, facepalmed, at this guy.
And then, finally they had the brilliant idea of trying to yank it out from the slot. One of the barrier ladies, I can't remember what she used, tried to scrape my poor ticket out. Then the police officer suggested tweezers.
They were not tweezers. They were pliers. Please get your terming correct, sir.
Anyhow, he just dragged my ticket out, and the lady handed it over to me. And I said "thank you" as politely and apologetically as possible, and dashed off through the barrier.
THAT WAS AN EXTREMELY AWKWARD EXPERIENCE.
The Schofields had obviously disappeared sometime during that fiasco.
And my train pass has scratches on it now.
What a bad day. I also deterred a lot of people from walking through the wide gates. The ladies had to tell quite a few people to use the normal barriers because the wide one was broken. Sorry everyone!
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