h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Prague's public transport is very good, with integrated Metro, tram and bus services. The knack is to buy a ticket in advance (or even a book of tickets) from a shop. Then, when you nip on the tram or bus you stick your ticket in the little slot and it stamps the time. Your ticket is now valid for the next hour if it is a standard fare. This standard fare will take you anywhere and on any form of transport for that hour. If you first get on a tube you will find the stamping machines at the head of the escalators. If caught without a valid ticket you will be fined, and the inspectors (that I have seen) are plain clothed. At the time of writing it costs twelve crowns (about twenty five British pence) for a standard ticket.
Glasgow buses operate an exact change system, where the money is dropped into a transparent hopper for the driver to check. This means that he has no access to the money, and so protects him from attack. At least that is the theory. Hence you can not get change back and have to pay over the fare if you are unable to find the right coins.
The Glasgow Underground operates a flat rate fare and at the time of writing it is actually cheaper to buy an all day rover ticket (unlimited journeys on the Underground after half past nine in the morning) than a standard return.
The Glasgow Underground is nicknamed "The Clockwork Orange" due to the colour of the trains.

Have you ever been on the underground trains, trams and busses in Berlin. They are fab! You only have to buy one ticket which lasts for two whole hours and lets you on all three forms of trasport during that time. It's called an integrated transport system.

Now why can't the British do that???

The only hint I have for Berlin's transport system is to buy a carnet in advance (or a 7 day ticket) and remember to validate it in the red boxes you will see in stations or on the busses/trams. Failure to do so will result in you being humiliated by the guards, fined, and thrown off at the next stop. They don't have undercover inspectors, but there is a guard on every underground train.

B.

I remember Prague in 1990 - taking the tube cost a single crown - and that was when a crown was worth an uncountably small fraction of a penny!