Re: [NSW] Who's got the worst trains

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

"Gnome 412" <gnome412@hotmail.com> writes:

>from http://news.com.au today ...

>23mar00

[ some sections deleted ]

>State Rail has applied to increase fares by 12.2 per cent this year despite
>growing commuter anger about overcrowding, dirty trains, safety and
>reliability.

>In other developments revealed yesterday:

>A check of more than 100 trains by The Daily Telegraph found barely a fifth
>were running on time.

Did they define what 'on time' means? I bet not, which means if a train
tabled to arrive at time X arrives at time X+1, they'd regard that as late..
grrr..

And I bet nobody thought to take into account the wet, cold weather we've
had for the last week until today. The rail network is highly
weather-dependent for running time performance.

>The Australian Services Union said nearly 300 complaints were being made
>about train services daily.

To whom? And what about? We hear these sort of claims all the time with no
hard evidence to back up the numbers.

>Transport Minister Carl Scully said CityRail should do better. "I am
>disappointed with the performance of CityRail," the minister said.

Yeah - yeah.. it's all yadda yadda yadda for a man who has no idea what
actually goes on at the coal face. I have no faith in Carl Scully, and at
the moment I'm divided about certain other people (namely the CityRail train
crewing manager and other people at around the same level) since I hardly
know any of them and have no idea what any of them (except the CityRail TCM)
looks like. 8-)

>The number of carriages has reduced with the retirement of the last of the
>so- called red rattlers in the mid-1990s.

Wrong again - they were all withdrawn by 1992. I wonder if the newspaper
ever think to hire a specialised 'transport' reporter who knows what he's
talking about? 8-)

>State Rail said there had been a fresh surge in passenger numbers in recent
>months that could only worsen overcrowding problems.

What overcrowding? There are always heavy passenger loads in the AM and PM
peaks - the trains are always full. Outside these times, the trains are
almost never more than 50 percent full.

>There is no solution in sight in the short term to the shortage, despite the
>added pressures of the new airport line and the Olympics.

I just love the flamboyance of the language!

>Transport Minister Carl Scully said yesterday that improved maintenance
>turnaround times meant CityRail was effectively creating more services with
>less carriages.

Yes, but 'improved maintenance turnaround time' actually means 'less time to
do maintenance' which further translates to 'less maintenance'...

Regards,

Craig.

--
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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