A Stunning example of the inbalance of the Rail Safety Act 1993 (NSW)

["Ivan Smith" <ivsmith11@hotmail.nospam.com>]

Ok,

I've been done and pleaded guilty for "Fare Evasion" due to SRA staff stuff
ups, insufficient staffing levels etc,,,

In the course of defending this charge I had a chance to read the Act from
start to end.

One thing I noticed is that the Event Majeure and Double Jeopardy sections
are unfair to consumers:

Last evening the 17:26 out of Jannali to Cronulla turned up on time at
Jannali.

Without fair warning we were informed first by the guard that there had been
a signal failure and the train would remain at Sutherland. Length of the
delay unknown. Fair enough.

Then the station announcement comes on and states that this train is
terminating here. The guard gets on and says the same thing.

I live at Cronulla which is miles away from Sutherland. So we all stood on
the platform like stunned mullets (as usual) with no information, in the
cold and dark, and after about 10 minutes of this, I and several others
started to make for the exits, after realising the situation had
deteriorated so badly in the communication up and down the line, that
Sutherland Station had no idea, as usual, leaving us all pissed off and
angry.

What really pissed me off about this was that I had paid for me weekly at
the start of the week, and I couldn't get the service I had recently been
unfairly fined for.

I walked from Sutherland to Miranda ($15 cab, $27 to Cronulla), as there
were no Taxis, busses or offers from the SRA of alternate transport or
reimbursement of alternate fare costs. All I could think of "where's my
refund on my ticket, for a trip you  would gladly fine me for, $100, if I
didn't have a valid ticket to travel?" - Failure to deliver a service, which
is completely covered in the SRA's favour, in the Act.

So my point is that the Rail Safety Act 1993 is stacked. It's stacked
against the commuters and for the SRA. The clauses which pertain to last
nights (all too common) situation are clearly letting the SRA off the hook
with their obligation to service they must provide.

What is the mechanism for a fare refund claim??

If they can fine me for an innocent circumstantial incident according to
their legislation, then there must be a mechanism for us to claim back off
them. There isn't though because the Rail Safety Act 1993 is stacked against
commuters in the most part.

Ivan