Metro mystery

Further to the correspondence on people who jump the barriers of the Paris Metro, Jonathan Christie of Thrills and Skills, Oxford ('the travel agency for skiing and activity holidays') writes:

'I remember being surprised by this when I was living in Paris 10 years ago. The explanantion then was that most of the 'jumpers' had monthly Metro tickets (the Carte Orange) which were like ID cards with a photograph and an orange heavy-duty Metro ticket in a small see-through plastic wallet.

'The jumpers could not be bothered to get the wallet out of their pocket, and then get the ticket out of the wallet and put it in the machine to open the 'gates'.

'If stopped they were invariably found to be legitimate travellers, hence one often saw Metro staff looking on as busy, lazy but fit Parisians hurdled the hip-high barriers.'