Re: Olympics journalists sample the joys of Sydney's train network

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au>]

As promised - from clari.sports.olympic

"AFP" <C-afp@clari.net> wrote in message
news:Qoly-trainsUR-j4_AS5@clari.net...
>
>    SYDNEY, Sept 5 (AFP) - Sydney's much maligned rail service
> failed again Tuesday, leaving 400 passengers -- mostly international
> journalists -- stranded at the showpiece Olympic Park station.
>    Railway officials blamed "high winds" for bringing down overhead
> lines on to the tracks, but were unable to say how long the problem
> would take to rectify.
>    Games organisers, including the Premier of the Olympic host
> state of New South Wales, Bob Carr, have admitted the woefully
> inefficient and accident-prone rail network is their biggest worry
> for the games starting here on Friday, September 15.
>    The new rail link to Homebush and the state-of-the-art Olympic
> Park station were opened last year as part of the new Olympic
> stadium complex.
>    But rarely a day passes without a derailment, a signal failure
> or an accident, a total of 60 drivers having faced suspension in
> recent weeks because of derailments or running red lights.
>    The 400 stranded passengers had to wait patiently on Tuesday for
> back-up bus services to transport them back to the city from the
> games stadium where many of the journalists had been installing or
> testing facilities.
>    A CityRail spokesman said the Olympic Park station itself had
> been evacuated as a precaution, with the overhead lines thought to
> have been blown on to the tracks.
>    Up to 26 buses were to ferry passengers between Homebush and
> Lidcombe to catch a connecting train back to the city, he said.
> No-one had been hurt.
>    However, details were still sketchy, with no-one at the station
> able to say exactly what happened or whether any fallen overhead
> lines could be seen.
>    Why the lines were flimsy enough to be blown down by fresher
> than usual winds was not explained. According to the weather bureau,
> winds in the area were gusting up to 35 knots.
>    One of the journalists waiting for a bus said it had taken his
> group an hour and a half to get from the city to Homebush, a
> distance of about 14 kilometres (nine miles), which would normally
> take half an hour by train.
>    He said he had been directed by a station attendant to go to
> Strathfield station to transfer to the Homebush Park train, but when
> he got to Strathfield another station attendant told him: "You'll
> need to go to Lidcombe for the Homebush connection.
>    "Sorry, but it's Strathfield in the morning, Lidcombe in the
> afternoon."
>