Keeping tradition alive, this elder still pays for bus rides

Carlo Decker, aged 84, spent most of his life paying for bus rides. When Luxembourg instituted free public transport in 2020, this Mertzig great-grandfather vowed to keep alive the tradition of paying. The Wurst spoke to him about being a "carrier of the flame" and the difficulties he faces.

Tell us about your experience with paying for public transport.

I grew up in a village near Diekirch. As a boy, I remember my parents and grandparents and everyone around us paying for bus rides. Later, when we moved to Mertzig, we continued the practice. The whole town did. Even when I got older and had children and then grandchildren, I kept it up.

Why is paying for public transport important to you?

It feels good and proper. A dear friend says it's something called muscle memory, and maybe she's right. My children say I'm stubborn and old-fashioned. Maybe they're also correct. My grandkids say I'm odd. That's probably also true. How does this paying-for-a-ride thing work? You enter a bus through the front door. The driver looks at you. Sometimes he or she says moien, sometimes not. It's hard to know why. I believe it's related to the lunar cycles and the price of corn in Peru, but that's another discussion. You pay, get a ticket, and take a seat. Basically that's it.

You're moving too fast. Pay? Ticket? Walk us through it.

You reach into your pocket, wallet, or purse and remove what's known as cash. In this case, usually it's a coin or two, although the drivers used to accept small banknotes and give you change.

So you just show the cash? As proof? And that's enough?

No. You need to give the cash to the driver who'll then give you a ticket as proof of payment. Previously there were surfaces where you could leave the money so that your hand didn't touch the driver's hand and make the encounter awkward. Nowadays, you have to hand it over.

So the ticket is kind of like an email confirmation. What happens if you lose it?

Well, you don't lose it. You put it somewhere safe.

Do you encounter any resistance?

Quite often the driver just looks at me, confused. Occasionally they understand that I want to pay, so they tell me it's free. If a driver doesn't take my money, I have to force him to take it. That's not easy when you're eighty-four years old and have arthritis.

What about your ticket?

Luxembourg buses are no longer equipped with paper tickets or dispensers. Some young drivers don't even know the concept, so I carry my own custom-made Luxembourg bus tickets I bought on Alibaba. There's a company in the Guangdong province that makes very convincing replicas. If you buy more than ten thousand at a time, as I do, shipping is free.

Anyway, so I slip the driver a ticket and make him role-play the interaction with me. The good ones do it with enthusiasm and say, "Here's your ticket, Mr. Decker, and I wish you a fine voyage, a lovely day, and continued luck in his freakish practice of yours, one that surely gives shame to your friends and family members who are unfortunate enough to take the bus with you." The bad ones just drop the ticket in my hand without a word.

How will you ensure that others keep the tradition alive?

I'm thinking of buying an old bus and creating an after-school program where young people can learn about the satisfaction of boarding a bus, paying, and getting a ticket. If the program succeeds, and I'm sure it will, we can expand all across the country.

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