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

[iam@bastard.com (Craig)]

On Thu, 05 Apr 2001 02:30:52 GMT, "Ivan Smith"
<ivsmith11@hotmail.nospam.com> wrote:

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

Pathetic really! :-)

I have never once been caught for that even though I did it regularly
back when I was at uni. That's not much of a boast considering how bad
the security is. My friend, who is a train driver, has nothing but
contempt for the "cattle" who can't be bothered looking for the holes
in the system.

>
>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.

You left after only 10 minutes? You must be new to this! ;-) The SRA
always cancel services when they get out of time table order,
especially at peak hour! You should have kicked back and waited.

>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.

Now for my impersonation of SRA management's reply to this.
"Who fucking cares you pleb!" :-)

>
>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.

Think you'll find there is NO guarantee of serivce. The only thing
close to a refund they give out to suburban commuters is a fare-free
day.

>
>What is the mechanism for a fare refund claim??

It's a few shiny cogs and sprockets that spin rapidly but do no work
:-)

>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.

Innocent....LOL! Yeah, sure mate ;-)