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I know Indians say ticket collectors while in Australia people are confused with this phrase. Please let me know how you would say that.

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how many people in australia? like, all of them or is it just one guy? are you from australia? – Chris Drappier Mar 15 '12 at 2:31
Can't understand why are you asking these questions ;) – Jackie Chan Mar 15 '12 at 2:40
I'll edit the question title - I don't think anyone says tickets collector. To the extent that there are still any real-world referents, Australians in general probably call them ticket collectors, same as Brits – FumbleFingers Mar 15 '12 at 4:55
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By ticket collector do you mean with respect to a train, or a movie theater or maybe even somebody who likes to exceed the posted speed limit while under the observation of the police? – Jim Mar 15 '12 at 5:01
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Is a ticket collector somebody who is on the train, walks down the aisle, and checks people's tickets, or are they somebody who takes people's tickets when they first board the train? The first is called a conductor in the U.S. (we still have them), but the second is only a conductor if they travel with the train. – Peter Shor Mar 15 '12 at 13:01
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4 Answers

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Well as far as I know we always called them 'conductors' in Australia. But they are a rare breed now. You might see them on cross-country trains, but not on the normal commuter buses, trams or trains.

But the use of'ticket collectors' or 'ticket takers' would hardly seem to create the enigma of the ages. Perhaps people don't make the connection that you are talking about a person, and are trying to match your words to a machine that processes the tickets? It's just a guess.

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I would say "ticket collector", and I'm a native speaker of British English.

The British National Corpus seems to be consistent with my idiolect, with 31 hits for ticket collector(s)*. JLG mentioned ticket taker(s), which sounds completely off to me and doesn't appear in BNC at all. Various people have mentioned conductor: there are 3 for conductor in close proximity (4 words either way) to ticket, but a conductor is someone who comes round on a bus or train to sell you the ticket - i.e. they collect money rather than tickets.

I can't speak to Australian English, and I don't know a suitable corpus to conduct research on it.

* Search term ticket [collector] via this web interface

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Technically, it depends on the precise duties. Britain used to have conductors on buses and guards on trains, whose duties included collecting tickets, but were certainly wider than that. Progress has consigned them to history, and the private firms now have a wide variety of job titles such as 'Revenue Protection Inspector' and 'Senior Customer Liaison Officer'. If you use a particular vehicle regularly, it might be worth asking what the specific person is called, but generally I would think 'ticket collector' is as good as anything.

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Ticket taker or ticket agent. On a train, the person who takes the tickets can be called a conductor.

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I've never heard ticket taker in the UK. We used to have conductors on buses (never trains). They more or less disappeared about 20 years ago though. Now it's just a driver selling tickets; sometimes an inspector gets on to check the passengers really have got tickets, and they're not working some kind of fiddle with the driver. Ticket agents are companies/people who sell tickets for things they themselves aren't responsible for providing (music concerts organised by another company, for example). – FumbleFingers Mar 15 '12 at 4:54
Right, 'ushers' take tickets at the symphony and movie theaters. – Jim Mar 15 '12 at 5:04
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Is this answer intended to cover British English, Australian English, or both? If British English, do you have any references? Ticket taker doesn't appear at all in the British National Corpus. – Peter Taylor Mar 15 '12 at 12:09
I like "ticket taker" here. A "ticket collector" maybe... but that could be someone who like to get tickets from many places, then puts them in a scrapbook or something to keep and display his "ticket collection". – GEdgar Mar 15 '12 at 15:12

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