The conductor on my train from Newark to New Brunswick today didn't charge me the $6 step-up that railroad rules say is supposed to be charged when a rider shows a pass for South Orange to Newark, which is my regular commuter route. That's a frequent occurrence, and it leads me to wonder about the degree to which the relaxed attitude of many of the conductors toward the rule is part of an optimal "yin-yang" balance with their many colleagues who do follow the rule...
My intuition is that a revenue-maximizing railroad does want some nonenforcement, partly for practical situational reasons, such as a crowded trains with a short time between stops. I also suspect it should want some level of broader, "we're mellow and not enforcing the rule" nonenforcement. The basic point is that rule enforcement creates in some cases a high level of tension between the RR and the patron. Patrons who are aware that the RR makes errors in their favor are likely to be much mellower and less likely to abandon or otherwise dis the RR when it makes rule-enforcing errors against them, as will inevitably be the case.
That's the way it works for me. Some of the time, conductors misread their cards and charge me more than $6--for some reason, $9 is the usual erroneous figure. I don't complain by pointing out the right number and embarrassing them in front of other riders. I would if some conductors didn't let me off the hook altogether.
So is the level of nonenforcement optimal? I have the "reform government" intuition that it's not. My guess is that I get away w/ not paying the step-up substantially more than I should.
I also intuit/guess/suspect that if NJ Transit had a better labor system instead of the "job security after a probationary period" system I suspect it has and shares w/ most government agencies, the proportion of conductors enforcing the step up rule would go up by a fair amount.
At the same time, I don't think the optimal rule enforcement rate is close to 100%. Even in a hypothetical world where all the conductors have all the time in the world to enforce the rule, are indefatigable workers, and don't mind doing the enforcement and taking the heat at all, the rule should sometimes not be enforced. The RR has an interest in having some conductors who are mellow (and/or conflict averse) and let the riders off the hook some of the time.
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