Re: Yarra MCG Chaos

["Ted Gay" <tedgay@bigpond.com>]

"OgO" <quentisl@leaves.qjc.cjb.net> wrote in message
Xns908F70EE6E7E5ogo1mynxwowaustcom@203.109.250.24">news:Xns908F70EE6E7E5ogo1mynxwowaustcom@203.109.250.24...
>
> Fair enough.  One thing I thought of when I responded was the
> way, when there is an accident or something which closes a rail
> line, they are able to organise extra busses from bus companies
> and use them to ferry people.  If the bus companies are able to
> find these busses/drivers within about 1/2 hour, couldn't yarra
> trams have come up with something in at least a couple days.
>
In my bitter experience when a daily Gosford-Sydney-Gosford
(160kms)commuter, rail  stuff-ups don't happen when a fleet of buses just
happens to be passing by, eg if the stuff-up happens when buses are all out
on school runs then there can be a considerable delay.  I've been standing
around waiting for substitute buses for hours and have never experienced
something as little as ½ hour. Usually it means waiting for the buses to
complete their normal peak hour routes, then on overtime the bus drivers
rescue the stranded rail commuters.

Last Wednesday was a public holiday and therefore less bus drivers would
have been working that day.

> Surely from their staff, they could find some people willing to
> work the public holiday in order to staff extra services, even
> at say, 2 days notice?

Yes some drivers would no doubt enjoy picking up extra pay at
double-time-and-a-half (the pay for working on a public holiday).  But
employing extras for an eight hour shift (or perhaps for a minimum of four
hours, I don't know their award) for say an effective hour doing one run
after the game is economic madness for a private company.  If the services
were government run and taxpayers were picking up the tab, well......

Ted