Re: Stop Defending Cityrail Attrocious Record

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

"Anita Lukaszyk" <neety@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
3AD7A670.222A0DB5@iprimus.com.au">news:3AD7A670.222A0DB5@iprimus.com.au...
> Mercia Chapman wrote:
>
> > why all weekends on some lines?
>
> Simple. Less people travel on the weekend.

That is a copout - it should be done at night, like they do in other
countries - and people who live near the railway lines can get stuffed, they
knew the railway was there when they moved there, they have to live with the
consequences.

> > Why does Cityrail make it almost impossible to get anywhere on weekends.
>
> Major trackwork is advertised in Sydney/local papers a week or more in
> advance. If you have somewhere important to go, you should check
> beforehand.

Doesn't change the fact that it is increasingly difficult to get from point
a to point b without a major hassle occurring. All this does is turn off the
very people that CityRail should be trying to attract - the occasional,
off-peak customer, those who have a choice about their mode of travel.

> > Why did my girlfriend by the ridiculously expensive airport ticket from
> > central, get left at Central for 30 minutes, no announcements - NOTHING,
> > slow crawl to Domestic - miss her flight? Stupid her - she forgot she
needed
> > a taxi in Sydney. "9 minutes from Central to the Airport!". No apology ,
> > nothing.
>
> What is the going rate for a taxi from Central to Domestic? How long
> would it take? Did your girlfriend bother to check the timetables?

Central to Domestic cost me $21 last time I did it (a few weeks ago, had to
catch an 0605 flight and I wanted sufficient time in the Qantas Club).

> A guy came into work yesterday wanting to go to the Airport. It's almost
> 4.30pm. Next train is in 1 hour. He has a flight at 9pm. It will take at
> least 3 1/2 hours to get into Sydney and then to Domestic. Is it our
> fault he didn't check the timetables? No.

Are people who never travel by train supposed to know to look up multiple
sources of information in order to come up with various different versions
of possible journey scenarios?

It is more likely that people who rarely travel by train are more likely to
look at a timetable and trust what they read in it.

Given that trackwork is becoming more and more frequent, perhaps CityRail
should abandon timetables all together and publish them on a weekly basis.

> > Go ahead and drive your cars everywhere. Why catch
> > the train?
>
> I don't have a car. Not everybody does, you know. In some cases, it may
> be easier/cheaper to catch a train. For example, if I wanted to go to
> the airport, I could get a taxi for $80+ and 1 1/2 hrs. Or I could get a
> train for much less, and be there in an hour or so.

Less than an hour from where you are. I took someone to the airport from
Lilianfels (near Echo Point) last week and I was there in 90 minutes. From
Penrith it would be much less.

Dave