Re: XPT's Reduced

["Chris Downs" <cvdowns@ozemail.com.au>]

Dave Proctor <daproc@spambait.ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
gyUA6.142071$lj4.4402935@news6.giganews.com">news:gyUA6.142071$lj4.4402935@news6.giganews.com...
>
> You are faced with either eating or rejecting what is on offer with the
> airline. If you reject it, you can eat at the other end.
>
> However, on a 14 hour train journey from Sydney to Brisbane, you do not have
> that option. If you have not taken food with you, you either do not eat
> (missing out on dinner in the meantime) or you eat what they have on board.
>
> Either way, I would rather be on a plane for 80 minutes with courteous staff
> paying $55 rather than be on a trainfor 14 hours with insolent and rude
> staff for the same fare.
>
> Dave

In 40+ one way trips on the XPT's Lismore/Casino-Sydney leg (1992-1996) I
can't recall once having personally encountered a rude Countrylink staff
member.  The only time I ever witnessed staff get stroppy was with passengers
who repeatedly lay across the aisle at night.  Overall no better or worse than
my experiences with Ansett.

As for the food anything Countrylink provides (despite cost in addition to the
fare) beats the hell out of Ansett's worst; the damn cookie (one lousy cookie)
that you get for a snack sometimes - blah!  Ansett once provided the most
amusing food option I've seen though - they loaded little packs of CCs as
snacks.  Watching the staff trying to hold/juggle dozens of little packs blown
up like balloons at 10,000m was rather fun however staff didn't share that
view.  Smiles faded though when passengers failed to grip the packs to open
them.

At $55 one way I agree the fare swings it to the air, but at $300 it comes
screaming back to earth.

Chris