Re: [NSW CityRail +] World coming to an end!

[Graham Fry <fryg@sydpcug.org.au>]

Gnome 412 wrote:
> 
> Went for a brief ride on CityRail this morning, aiming to catch the 07:37
> from Kogarah to Central.
> 
> At Kogarah, the four-car train from Thirroul that normally passes at 07:29
> on the Illawarra showed up on the Illawarra Local about 5 minutes later than
> that.  There were clear and courteous human announcements that the 07:28
> would depart from platform 3 (Up Illawarra), that the 07:37 could be delayed
> five minutes and that CityRail apologised for the inconvenience and delay.
> Half the disgruntled customers on platform 1 (Up Illawarra Local) trudged to
> platform 3 so as to stand up on a "fast" train and save five minutes.
> 
I was on the 7:21 from Penshurst. Around St Peters we started travelling
ominously slowly and then between St Peters and Erskineville came to a
stop. The guard came on after a few minutes and announced that there was
a broken rail between St Peters and Erskineville but that we would be
proceeding around the city circle. As we already between St Peters and
Erskineville and were supposed to be travelling around the city circle
this seemed somewhat odd. After about five minutes we slowly went
forward.On passing the Eastern Suburbs line junction I could see work
being carried out on the line just beyond the junction points. 
To my pleasent surprise, we then proceeded relatively quickly to Central
through the crossovers to join the city circle outer. At most we were
only about 10' late. A very creditable performance. 
> skip
> 
> The train guard announced that there would be a ten minute delay because
> there was a defective rail between Erskineville and Redfern, that it was
> being repaired, that trains were proceeding at a very cautious speed, and
> that CityRail regretted and apologised for the ten minute delay.
> 
> <skip>

I also was impressed on being kept informed other than the minor error
on location. No doubt the Terrograph will have some horror story in the
paper tomorrow.
Normally, particularly in the morning, the Illawarra line is very
reliable.

Graham Fry