Re: NSW State Rail...a nightmare that is getting worse

["Hubert Lam" <hubert@imap4.com>]

"Pete" <Klendathu98@yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
38ef6ffd$0$6516@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:38ef6ffd$0$6516@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> Im new to this group, and my train expertise only goes as far as being a
> victim..I mean customer of State Rail in NSW. Things are reaching a breaking
> point in State Rail's network.
>
> Im a regular traveller from the Campbelltown area to the city circle, and
> things cant get much worse.

I'm a regular traveller on the Main North Line. Things have been the same for the past 5 years:

>
> -Late trains are becoming the norm. Cancellations during peak hour seem the
> latest increasing trends.

Cancellations during peak hour are relatively rare, but 8 car trains turning into 6 are becoming
more common

>
> -Filthy trains in the morning. Once had stagnant water swishing around on
> the floor. The smell of vomit is sometimes present as well.

Trains around sector 3 (North Shore, Western Lines, Main North) are generally much cleaner for no
apparent reason. Maybe people are more "civilised" (forgive me) around these areas. I'm not saying
people in the south are uncivilised, but somehow when you look at trains from the south and compare
them with the north, the north ones are MUCH cleaner. (and I've never smelt vomit on a sector 3
maintained train)

>
> - Forget catching a train on the weekends, if a bus service isnt bad
> enough....the cancellations will surely break the spirit of even the most
> optimistic of travellers.

Late/cancelled trains on weekends aren't included in the "late train statistics" or that the
Cityrail "objective" of "on time within 3 min" isn't really taken seriously on Saturdays and
Sundays.

>
> - The security guards are keystone cops, and the criminals that travel the
> system know it. Violent hoodlums rule the system at night, especially on
> gloomily lit stations that are not attended. Even during the daylight hours
> standing on a Western Suburbs platorm can be a semi-dangerous experience.

Lighting is being upgraded, but one wonders how long it will last before violent hoodlums destroy
it.

>
> -Summer, air conditioner on Non-Tangara trains doesnt usually work. Come
> Winter, its on full blast freeze mode.
>

Depends. Many Tangaras around Hornsby have busted A/C units, so it's even worse all seasons, you
choke to death.

> -Ticket prices are an outrage, and just keep going up. 35 bucks for a weekly
> into the city and rising.
>

yes i agree...i can remember a few years back paying for a single child ticket of $0.60 (which i'm
still entitled to) to travel between one or two suburban stations

> -ticketing police that have delusions of power. I once honestly lost my
> ticket on a journey, only to be rudely slapped with a 100 dollar fine..even
> though I had first walked to the ticket office at my destination and offered
> payment. I explained that for years I had been a honest paying traveller,
> and here I was with a  lost ticket offering to pay...not good enough.

they don't usually appear on the Main North Line, for all that i can observe

>
> When will this fiasco end? When will the prices stop rising and the service
> stop plummeting? And they wonder why people avoid public transport as much
> as possible and hit the roads?
>
> Does anybody from inside State Rail have an opinion on whats causing the
> trouble? Lack of funds? Bad management?
>

I truely believe that a great public transport system can't be run with all these beuraucracies and
political motivation (to pull votes). Public transport is for the good of everyone, not just for
people in this electorate or people in that electorate. I do feel that even if politics has to be in
public transport that the decisions made must be for a long term good, not just for short term. The
Harbour Bridge was a great example--it was built to the size it is, bearing in mind that "Sydney
would expand and a lot more traffic will use it". Of course Sydney has expanded much more, but at
least we didn't need "side lane extensions" to our coathanger like Auckland did with their harbour
bridge! And even then do we still need a harbour tunnel.

> I remember many years ago in the early 90's things were not this bad.

i agree, but bear in mind the number of people per day that use the railway system now.


>
> Pete
>
>
>
>