Skytrain tickets in Thailand

I've been to Thailand recently and I must say they have a nice strategy indeed for what concerns Skytrain tickets.

Skytrain tickets (front & back)

Here's what I noticed:

• tickets have various prices, depending on where you are and where you want to go and they change according to the distance you travel, up to a maximum
• no standard fare, you pay for what you use;

• tickets are required both on entrance and on exit
• a double check is always made on the fare you paid and less controllers are needed;
• you can buy a prepaid card and it makes you pay any time the right amount, knowing the distance you travel;
• there's less waste to collect out of the stations (usually people just throw away - read "on the floor" - tickets as soon as they become useless);

• tickets are in plastic and are taken by the exit machine and reused (as you can see the top one is a bit consumed):
• any ticket is programmable for any route (that's what it seems, since they are all the same);
• less paper/plastic waste is generated;

• tickets have on their back a Skytrain map:
• there's no need to search for a map (which is a great great thing for a tourist :) ).

Unfortunately there's no way to get you to know where your ticket brings you to, for there's no display on tickets to let you know and tickets are all the same. Yet the system works very well for what I could see.

There's only one negative thing I can find: once you buy a ticket you might not be able to change your mind, for stations have different prices and you can't go to a more expensive one than what you paid for.
Yet I guess this situation does not happen too often, plus the user might think of it as "his fault" and thus not complain about having to get out and buy a new ticket. :)