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Comment by jjmarr | Hacker News Reader

The subway needs a rich person car. It costs double the fare, but is cleaned more frequently and is free of the screamers/crazy people.

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Are there any intra-city trains that have fare classes? Inter-city trains sell plenty of first-class tickets for the same value proposition, but I've never seen it on public transit (although I've only ever seen transit in North America and Europe).

Most medium-to-long distance trains in Europe have 1st class compartments. These can range from just being quieter because of the increased price, to spacious seats with complimentary food and drink. Italian high speed rail has business class with hireable meeting rooms[0]

[0] https://www.trenitalia.com/it/le_frecce/frecciarossa-per-il-...

I think German and Hong Kong have them.

The Paris métro had it until the early 90s, although it had been not so well enforced by the time they got rid of it.

https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/12/04/that-time-the-pari...

It's reasonably common on regional trains in Europe, meaning the trains that don't stop at every station within a city, but do stop at many or all of the stations between two large cities. (The intercity train only stops at the city.)

I've never seen it on a purely urban or suburban train within Europe, but then encountering a "screamer or crazy person" is something that happens perhaps once a year, and only if travelling at unusual times like at night.

They should just do those things for every car. We don't want a caste system for subway riders. Instead make fees dependent on income level and improve the system for everyone so that more rich people want to use it and the poor people who are forced to use it are better off too.

You cannot legally remove people from the subway for being insane. If someone is making me uncomfortable by regaling me with conspiracy theories and ethnic slurs, there isn't the clear legal authority to trespass them.

However, if one car costs $3 and the other costs $6, the person who is statistically likely to urinate on the seats is more likely to pick the $3.

I will honestly pay double fare just to sit in a car with others that can afford to pay double fare.

You absolutely can (and should) remove people for screaming racial slurs at passengers in public transportation. Most crazy people are able to ride public transport just fine without being abusive to others. No one should be trapped in a car with someone who can't meet that very low bar, crazy or not.

I've been to other countries where the public transportation was amazing, and unsurprisingly there were almost zero people urinating (once in Japan I saw a drunk salaryman passed out with his pants around his ankles at a station and he was quietly whisked away less than a minute after I spotted him) so it's not as if a nice train system for everyone is some pipe dream that can't work in reality.

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