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For non===Non-French citizens/residents fines virtually don't exist. Feel free to give your passport and a fake (or real) address. You can have as many fines as you want. They disappear from their system within two months. Whatever it says on the back of the fine (about fines adding up etc.) might or might not be true, but it ONLY applies to French citizens/residents. Sometimes ticket inspectors bluff (a lot) that they will call the police, while trying to get you to pay on spot. You have nothing to worry about. As long as you keep calm and polite they have no legal reason to call the cops. They just hate writing fines because it is extra work for them and they get to write a lot of fines every day. So if you are nice and have a good story, they won't pressure you or try to kick you off, as they sometimes do. french citzens===
Strassbourg Morlaix (checked in 20212022)
Stations with gates and control for TGV:Mulhouse (checked in 2023)
AvignonLaval (checked in 20212023)
Perpignan Redon (checked in 20212023)
Lyon (checked in 2021)====Stations with gates and control for TGV:====
Probably Paris
The local Since 2020, all modes of public transport - buses, trains (CFL) and the tram - have two floors; be aware that there is a ticket booth at the end been free of the first car - don't accidentially run in it, unless you want to buy a ticket. There are ticket inspectors toocharge throughout Luxembourg. If you want to get out of the country, be aware that the inspector will check tickets on the international train as soon as it departs, so, if the next stop is still in Luxembourg, you're screwed. The cops are not liberal.
update Luxembourg
== [[Train hopping]] ==
In the [[United States of America|United States]], [[train hopping]] is still quite popular. In many states it's easier than hitchhiking. This is advanced jump style. But be careful on this type of train. It is relative really dangerous and failure can caused death and of course, you can get high penalty too (Pounds 1000 in United Kingdom). Threat is not only penalty like inside train for passengers.
== General train styles and guidelines ==
Train hopping in Europe is generally easy as countries don't have a good system to track fines. This means that if you have for example a Spanish passport and got a fine in France, you won't get the fine ever, except if you move to France one day and get a job etc.
There are different approaches to train hopping but it's good to keep in mind that the ticket inspectors are aware of all tricks and games. You can try and stay in the toilet for the whole journey but in some countries and trains they can unlock the toilet if they suspect you don't have a ticket, especialy in central Europe (Czech, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary). There are toilets checked by controller often especially in long-journey trains (EC, IC, SC). You could leave the door unlocked to try and fool them but that means every passenger would open the door as well... You can run around the train as well, trying to avoid the ticket inspector which may or may not work. These techniques may get you into more trouble and are generally not pleasurable but are very important for people with no ID since if you get caught and the ticket inspector wants to write you a fine, they will ask for a passport and if you don't have one or refuse to give it it is very likely that they call the cops.
So for people with ID, who are foreigners in the country, in most cases it is OK simply to find a quite place on the train, wait for the ticket inspector and kindly explain to them your situation (imaginary or not). In a lot of countries the law says they are obliged to write you a fine (which you will never have to pay as long as you give a fake address or say you don't have one) but they may kick you off. They may also threaten to call the police. It depends on each person how they prefer to deal with this - whether to argue or not, whether to plea or not but just keep calm as if you get aggressive it is a valid reason to get the cops on you. In case that a ticket inspector actually calls the police without a valid reason (no ID, being aggressive) don't panic, the most that can happen is they search you and/or escort you off the train station.
Generally, when choosing which train to take, opt for express trains - those with fewest stops, as you are unlikely to get far with regional ones - and you may get stuck in a station where almost no trains stop. It's very useful to memorize (or write down) the timetable, so that you instantly know which is the best train to take after you get kicked out of the previous one.
== [[Austria]] ==
Freeriding trains in Austria works fairly good.
In '''long distance trains''' they usually check tickets of everyone only once or twice during a journey. Usually in beginning of the journey. So if you manage to hide during the initial checking (toilet, luggage compartment, walking around the conductor pretending to be calling on phone…) you can then just sit down and pretend to be checked already. After the initial checking they will just ask for new passengers so you just read your book and don’t react. Also if you enter the train not in the first station you can just pretend to be already checked. Most long distance trains start either in Wien or Graz or somewhere in neighboring countries. So if you for example wanna go from Salzburg to Innsbruck the train comes from Wien and was most likely controlled already so they will ask just for new passengers.
If the train comes from other country they change the crew on the border so then the Austrian crew is likely to check everyone. With the long distance trains you can cross whole Austria without having any problem. Usually it is mostly about avoiding the one time they control everyone and then just ignoring them when they ask for newcomers.
Don't pretend to be sleeping. It is better to just read o book or look in phone and ignore them when they ask for new passengers. If you pretend to sleep (or if you sleep) they are likely to wake you up and ask for your ticket.
Sometimes you are unlucky and they think you are new in train and ask you for a ticket. The best think is to stay calm and tell them that you already showed the ticket and that you come from... (Graz, Wien, whatever big city that the train is coming from). After saying this just look back to your book or phone so that the conversation is finished. It often works and they let you be.
Some of the long distance trains are the new fancy once (similar style as ICE or TGV) but some are bit more oldschool. For freeriding it does not make much difference. Unless you like to hide in a luggage compartment. The new fancy trains have usually shelves for luggage where you can hide behind your backpack. The older once often don't have those shelves and have just a shelve above the seats. So forexample the trains from Wien to Innsbruck and Switzerland are the new ones and trains from Graz to Salzburg or Innsbruck are the older ones without luggage shelves.
It seems liket that there is a clear pattern on when they control everyone. So if you ride regularly you can kind of figure it out.
From '''Graz''' to ''' Salzburg''' (and oposite direction as well) they check everyone in the begining and then they ask just for new passengers.
From '''Graz''' to ''' Innsbruck''' they check in the very begining and then ask for new passengerrs but as the train ride is very long it is possible that the conductor will change and new conductor might control everyone again.
From '''switzerland (or Bregenz) to Wien''' they control between the begining and Innsbruck. Then it is chill again. Then they control between Kufstein (or Worgl) and Salzburg. Between Salzburg and Wien they usually just ask for new passengers.
From '''Wien to Switzerland (or Bregenz)''' They control somewhere between Wien and Salzburg. From Salzburg to Innsbruck they just ask for new passengers. Between Innsbruck and Switzerland they might control again.
Between '''Wien and Graz''' (in each direction) they often control in begining and then just ask for newcommers but it seems to be not so sure as sometimes they control bit later. So keep attentive.
All those information is just from observation so there is no guarantee that it works always like this but it seems to be usually like that. It is experiences from 2023 so in future it might change.
'''Regional trains''' are often without any control. But often they do control. Maybe 50% of time there is a conductor and 50% of time not. But that is very not precise estimation.
If you are lucky there is no conductor and you can just relax and enjoy your ride. If there is conductor there is not much you can do because the regional trains are quite small so it is easy for conductor to have overview about who they already checked and who not. You can buy a ticket just for few stations and stay in the train for longer.
Regional trains often have a ticket machine inside of a train. You are supposed to buy a ticket before boarding the train but in some little stations there is no ticket machine so you shall buy it inside of the train after entering. That can be very useful because you can just go into the train without ticket and if you see that there is a conductor you can go to the machine and buy a ticket. They might be unhappy about that because you are supposed to have ticket before but you can just say that you were super much in hurry to catch the train so you could not buy it before. They might be bit grumpy but nothing more.
'''If you get caught''' without a ticket they will probably ask you to pay and if you refuse they might ask for your ID or kick you out. The penalty is about 140 euros. IF you get fined and you don’t pay it you might get debts but you can not be put in prison for that. It is a debt to a private company (even though state owned) but not to state directly so nothing more than having debts can happen to you. If you are foreigner chances that something happens are even smaller.
If you are not aggressive or anything like that and you say you have no money and no ID they will most likely just ask you to get out on the next station. The chances that they will call cops to get your ID are very low. The few conductors that have kicked me out until now where quite chilled and polite. It is really not a big deal to get caught. They just kick you out and you wait an hour or two for the next train.
There is a lot of police controls while entering Austria from south and while leaving to Germany. So if you are '''crossing the border''' you maybe don’t want to be hiding in a toilet. Cops usually walk through and look for people with darker skin to ask them for papers. They are not interesting in tickets. But maybe if they find you hiding behind your backpack they might tell it to the conductor.
There are '''no gates''' to get into trains so you can always just get in. Same applies for public transport in cities. In cities you can also freeride trams, subway and most buses. Most of the time it will be relaxed. But of course you can be unlucky and get controlled but the controls are rather rare.
here is the '''old article''' with a lot of useless information:
Austria is not so big country in the middle of Europe and big part of this country is with mountains – Alps. There is big motorway '''A1 from Germany to Hungary''' ''(Munchen – Salzburg – Linz – Wien – Budapest)''. You can easily hitchhike there at exit of fuel stations. Another motorway goes to south – not so far from '''Rosenheim''' (Germany), the A1 motorway split to '''Munchen''' and south branch to '''Insbruck''' and '''Kufstein'''. And around Insbruck – the motorway spilts too – one '''direction to west''' (Switzerland) and one '''direction to Italy''' (Brenero, Bolzano, Verona). Insburck is big crossroad with beauty-full mountains around (up to 3300 m.n.m.). One hitchhiking place is fuel station before Insbruck. Many cars go to Italy (Sea, Skying), but there are only few cars in this fuel station, few cars go to Italy, and many hitchhikers waited there very long (few hours or even two days). Another possibility is hitchhiking with sign ''(Italy, Switzerland, Salzburg, Germany)'' before entrance to motorway in east Insbruck. Hitchhiking to Italy or Switzerland can be really bad here. If hitchhiking does not work, you just go to train station. Is it easy to jump on city bus inside Insbruck and taking it for free. (or another city in Austria) (penalty in city public transport can be for example in Wien 103 Eur) and you can go to train station or big road at the end of city.
== [[Denmark]] ==
Denmark is very flat country with a lot of sea around. There are very good hitchbility and trains going in Denmark too co course. But there is a lot of rain in Denmark(quite expectable for coastal places), not so ideal for sleeping outside and hitchhiking. So if you want to jump, it is possible. There are no information about stops during journey or map with trains in railway station, so it is quite difficult to find good journey and orientation for non-local people is difficult. Only information about departure and final destination and type of trains are aviableavailaible.
Regional trains have distance between stops about 5-15 km and interval to next train is about one hour. These trains have few carriages and number of passengers is medium or not so much. IC trains have distance between stops about 15-40 km (EC trains have longer distances between stops). IC trains go usually once per hour and there are about 3-8 wagons and a lot of passengers.
Conductor (blue jumprjumper) go after every station and he checks only new passengers quite quickly. There are about two wagons per conductor and ticket inspection is quite fast after station. He usually do not think so much about who is new passenger. So if your appearance is not so unusual, you only stay or sit somewhere and be reading a book or be looking out of window and do not do anything during control. But it do not work after first stop – at the begin of journey, of course.
You can very easily use short distance ticket trick (favourite jump style in central Europe). You just buy ticket only for one or two station and you show it to conductor, but do not get of at the end of ticket and you continue journey. Standard ticket price is about 1 danish crown per 1 km, it is Eur 3 per 30 km or 6-8 Eur per 100 km, so it is quite expensive for poor people, but not for local residents.
== [[France]] ==
Freeriding trains in France works quite well. There are mostly two kinds of trains: TGV and TER. '''TGV''' are high speed long distance trains. (G stands for "Great" and V for the french for "Velocity" another word for speed) '''TER''' are normal trains that have usually more stops.
'''TER''' can be quite long trains with many carriages but it can also be very small with just 2 carriages or so. On TER you can often be lucky and they don't control at all. Other times when they control they usually control only once or twice during the journey so you can keep your eyes open and try to avoid the control. Usually they don't check in the begining of journey but at some later point which makes it bit harder to predict. Tickets are not being checked in advance so you can just enter TER with no problem.
===TGV===
Are the high speed long distance trains. TGV drives sometimes over 300km/h (I think it's 220km/h actually) which makes it to be an extremely fast mean of transport. You can be lucky and make even few hours journey without control but usually if you go far they will control. On a longer ride they might control second time. They don't do very often the kind of control when they'd ask for new passengers as in other countries. So usually they either control everyone or they don't control.
To avoid the control one can do all the typical tricks as hiding on a toilet or dancing around the conductor. It is not too dificult to cross whole France from one end to the other in one day without getting caught.
The problem with TGV is that in some stations they control tickets before boarding the train. If they do so there is usually few conductors standing at the gates so you can't really sneak in. In some stations(usually in smaller towns) they don't have the gates so you can just get in the train without any issue. To get out is no problem as the gates are always open for those who are exiting. In the end of this article there is a list of stations that are known to have or not have gates...
===Getting caught===
If you get caught they will ask you either to pay or to show your ID so they can write you a fine. IF you don't provide ID they might just ask you to get out or call the cops.
IF you give ID they will issue a fine which functions as a valid ticket so you can continue your journey and if they control you again you just show the fine.
If you are foreigner (not a french citizen nor residant) you might also just give your ID and hope that the fine will never arrive. Usually it works. Many people use it. They just sit in a train and when they are controled they give ID. It is very easy and comfortable way of traveling. Conductors are usually polite and without making any stres they just issue you fine and you continue your journey. The fines usually never arrive. Also you can show a passport instead of an ID as usually there is no adress in passport which makes it even harder for them to deliver you the fines. Unfortunately there were cases when people got the fines delivered to their home countries and in at least one case SNCF (the french train company) passed the fines to a debt collector in the home country ( in this particular case it was Belgium) of the blackriding person.
So to summarize: You can have a great time just getting fines and not giving a shit but there is a little chance that they will chase debt collectors after you even in other country. If you don't have property and don't plan to ever have any than it shall be no problem.
===Here is the old article with more detail experiences and tips:===
Ticket checks are only occasionally performed on TER trains, and even the conductors on TGV trains do not always check tickets. When they do, it may only happen later in the journey, unlike in most countries where all tickets all checked at the beginning of the route.
For non-French citizens/residents fines virtually don't exist. Feel free to give your passport and a fake (or real) address. You can have as many fines as you want. They disappear from their system within two months. Whatever it says on the back of the fine (about fines adding up etc.) might or might not be true, but it ONLY applies to French citizens/residents. ===Police=== Sometimes ticket inspectors bluff (a lot) that they will call the police, while trying to get you to pay on spot. You have nothing to worry about. As long as you keep calm and polite they have no legal reason to call the cops. (a reform made that they can handle you to police, but that happens rarely ever, only big stations do have police). They just hate writing fines because it is extra work for them and they get to write a lot of fines every day. So if you are nice and have a good story, they won't pressure you or try to kick you off, as they sometimes do. If you don't have an ID the cops will (not always) be called and, as the law is in France, you have to prove your identity, which means just giving your name, address etc. Unfortunately it is up to the cops' opinion whether you are telling the truth or not and they may arrest you. North of Paris you are more likely to get arrested than to the South.
''Tip: Before getting checked it is best to locate yourself in-between carriages, where there are a few seats, a table and luggage compartment. Usually nobody stays there. When the inspector comes the atmosphere is more informal as they don't have to keep up an image of 'master-of-the-train' in front of other passengers and it goes more smoothly. After you get your fine (which is a valid ticket) feel free to sit wherever you like in the train.''
TGV trains are best because they are the fastest and with the least stops, so in the unlikely event of you getting kicked off, you will still get pretty far. TER trains are slower and with more stops.
Note: French trains don't cooperate much with police, and honestly even Gendarmerie fails to cooperate with regular police. ===Exiting Paris region=== If you are at the edge of Paris transport region (the former 5 zones, with transillien/RER lines with letters). If you jump in a train from one of the stations at the edge of the transillien RER zone, into a non-transillien there they're likely to check. It is quite possible to speak with the driver and the controller before the train start and tell them you want a ride for free. You can tell them otherwise, that you want to get a ticket from there, it'll be less than a fine, but more than a regular ticket (a little surplus is added to the regular price, you may tell them you go less far than you do). Some of them are kind enough to let you in. [[User:Bikepunk|Bikepunk]] got better luck with TER than TGV with this technique so far.
[[User:Mipplor|Mipplor]] hitchhiked a train from Luxembourg to Nancy, Lyon, Marseille, Monaco, Nice, and Perpignan in October 2009. Actually 1/3 of his time was spent in the toilet to read newspapers. He was a lucky dog that no single inspector came to trouble him.
As you can read, TGV trains are very fast (180-300 kph) and you can make there scary jump action. Distance between stops is about 50-200 km and 20-80 minutes. Conductor (Blue jumpr) usually check tickets every 2-3 stations, [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] thinks. System of control is unclear. In one TGV dace floor blue jumprs only went through wagon with something in the hand and wagon was almost full. It is possible that blue jumprs have in small computer list of seats with passengers and free seats. So they can check this quickly. But Peter sat close to restaurant wagon and many passengers was dining. [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] was sitting in somebody's place probably, and blue jumprs looks on free seats and it was OK. In the TGV train from Barcelona to Lion was another situation. Peter sat in tourist class and suddenly blue jumprs appears – one in one end of wagon and another in opposite side, and they start to check all passengers. [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] try to go around blue jumpr but he do do left him train zone, so blue jumprs met in Peter's place and they asked him for a ticket. He said that he lost ticket. So blue jumprs said that they call police (they try to make you scary usually) and Peter gave him identity card. They saw that he is not French and only kicked him out of train (probably without fine). Next TGV was running in three hours so Peter decide to hitch-hiking, it is easy in France. As you can read this train is going Barcelona-Lyon and back and hitch-hiking in Spain do not work. Get into TGV train is easy in France but [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] do not know Spanish system of ticket checking and Spanish jump styles. Some TGV trains have two floors, but it is not possible run in another floor around blue jumpr because of one part of first floor ends with wall.
===Slowish trains===
TER (and LER) trains are easy for train there. Distance between stops is about 5-25 km and 5-15 minutes. Speed is about 80-180 kph. There are one or two conductors, but they only give signal for train departure and tell something for passengers. They only rarely check tickets. PeterOB used in October 2015 different 7 TER trains and he was only one time checked. Blue jumpr women start checking ticket in morning train and he was going to toilet, he did not lock the door and he played shitting. But conductor open WC doors and she close it back. After two stops [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] went back to seat and conductor women came again for checking new passengers, she ask for a ticket. PeterOB did not have and she ask for final destination and after several stops she went back and ask for identity card. But she saw that Peter is not French and she let Peter to travel and she gave him advise, which trains go to Peter's final destination. So this women co-jumpr was very friendly and Peter did not see another control. LER train is similar and [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] do not know difference (Maybe – LER can me small train for small amount of passengers). Peter was train in LER only short distance and one time, but conductor did not check tickets. O train in LER trains is very easy and some TER trains have long journey and a lot of wagons, for example Paris-Lyon. Some TER trains have two floors and you can walk around conductor in another floor to area, where tickets was already checked.
Penalty in TER train is Eur 50 + ticket price in distances less than 150 km and Eur 88 + ticket price. Fines in LER is not same. But you can be probably only kicked out of train without fine, or you can try to run away in next stop. If you do not pay immediately, the fine grows to Eur 375 and if you do not communicate or you give wrong address, fine can grow up Eur 3750. But for non-French black jumprs fines probably do not exist and suddenly disappear after short time (two months). In TGV train – blue jumpr have a lot of time for writing penalty or call cops. They do not like writing penalty (extra job) and they try to make you scary with police sometimes. [[User:PeterOB|PeterOB]] do not know exact ticket inspection system and if tickets prices in TER and TGV are the same, or if penalty Eur 375 is for all types of train (probably yes). Probably, you have to have seat reservation in some or all TGV trains, but not in TER or LER train. And some blue jumprs can not speak English so good as many of French people or blue jumprs in east countries. Talk in English is not very easy in France.
===High speed===If you travel far you probably want to take TGV high-speed trains but in many stations they check the tickets for TGV (and ICE and such) on the entry to the platform which makes it kind of impossible to get in and you need to take TER. TER are not bad but it's probably still better to know where can you enter the fast trains. We tried once to ask the controlers on the gates if they could write us fine directly and let us in but they said that we can't get in without paying.You can't know in advance in what stations they check tickets for high speed trains before boarding but general rule is that in small towns it is likey to have no gates and in big cities there are often gates. You can really jump the gates because there are usually few conducters standing and looking which makes it kind of impossible. Sometimes it happens that also in station where they usually check TGV tickets before boarding they just leave the gates open so you can sometimes be lucky. =====Stations were they don`t check tickets before going to TGV:=====
Nimes (checked in 2021)
Dijon (checked in 20212023)
*Avignon(checked in 2021) *Perpignan (checked in 2021) *Lyon (checked in 2021) *Paris Montparnasse *Paris Est *Paris gare de Lyon *Rennes *Strasbourg *Le Mans *Nice- In Nice there are gates for entering the platforms but you can just buy the cheapest ticket for short train, you pass the gates and then you can go to the fast train you like. ===Unguarded turnstyles=== Some places do use normal (rotating) turnstyles, turnstyles are sometimes unguarded so you can simply hop. You still may get a control later. Non-rotating turnstyles are not always functionning, you may pass throught those.
== [[Germany]] ==
Germany has an extensive passenger railway system, run by Deutsche Bahn. There are also plenty of freight trains that could be hopped. More information about ticket prices and blackriding can be found in the [[Deutsche Bahn]] article.
If you try to evade fare, they send you to Heligoland Prison, an island in Germany. [Actually, no].
== [[Greece]] ==
== [[Luxembourg]] ==
== [[Norway]] ==
== [[Spain]] ==
There are many different types of trains (Cercanias/Rodalia, regional, regional express and Catalunya express are obviously the worst, as they have the most stops) and you have to be aware of the fact that depending on where you are, trains may not go frequently. The conductor may either check the whole train several times or after initial check rely on his memory to see who has just hopped on the train or he may have a list. He doesn´t get off the train while checking, so you can jump off the train and jump back on on that part that he has already checked. Trains have only one inspector, even if they are composed of two parts between which you can´t walk. They don´t call the police if you refuse to pay or show a proof of identity, you simply have to get off at the next stop. White timetables (those showing trains going between two locations, not just those stopping from a particular station) list only regional trains - well, in case, you´re wondering why there are so few trains listed. Trains seem to have only one toilet, if any. In bigger cities (Barcelona, Castellon, Valencia, Alicante, ...) and in many smaller cities which may be even worse since there is less people and security can easily notice you it seems to be the rule that you need a ticket to get to the platforms. Sometimes you need a ticket to get only to Cercanias/Rodalia trains, sometimes only to express trains, sometimes both. If you are kicked out of the train, security may kick you out of the station too, so sometimes the only option is to hitchhike. When leaving Barcelona, take any Rodalies train to Passeig de Gracia where all trains going from Estacio de Franca south and from Estacio de Sants north and Rodalies trains stop at the same platform - that is, there are two platforms for each direction, you don´t need a ticket to go between them.
In some stations (especially around Barcelona) they control tickets before entering the platform. In other cities (like Murcia) they don't and you can enter. In some cities they check tickets before entering just for high speed trains so you can still take the regional trains for free (like in Girona). You can't know in advance but if you find out about some stations you can add the information to here.
== [[Sweden]] ==
But night traveling is better – turnstiles are open after 9pm and no control during entering to platform or leaving platform.
train in United kingdom are quite fast, 200-250 km/h is quite common, so it is quite scary prom. Many trains have own stop list and it is very different for optimalize train speed. Interval to next train is usually 15-60 minutes. Distance between stops is 25-100 km. There are usually a lot of passengers in train, especially at afternoon. Because of Britain population is huge. ===Turnstyles===
There are slower local trains with more stops and without turnstiles at stop of curse.
