Re: Yarra Trams Article in Sunday Age

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

"Graeme Cleak" <gcleak@optusnet.com.au> wrote in message
3a7ff169$0$16391$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au">news:3a7ff169$0$16391$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au...
> Do you really believe Train Companies should have buses on standby for 20
> hours a day "just in case a breakdown occurs".?

Do you really believe that train companies should expect us to buy tickets
in advance and hold onto them for weeks in advance "just in case the ticket
machines at the stations break down"? If you do why not just remove ticket
machines in their entirety and force everyone to prepay?

As it stands, they promote the ability to purchase tickets from the
stations. They promote this by having the machines installed and (mostly)
operational. They cannot (morally, if not legally) promote the option of
purchasing at stations prior to travel and then penalise people who cannot
purchase tickets because *their* machines are faulty.

> Can you justify the costs in this?

No, but he was drawing a parallel to the operating companies expecting
people to spend money pre-purchasing tickets *just in case* the machines are
faulty.

> Next we will expect QANTAS to have another Jumbo at the Airport just in
case
> there is a fault on the aircraft to work QF 2 to somewhere far away!

They do, at Sydney and often in Melbourne. As for the QF2, I imagine British
Airways would have an aircraft if it went US in London, or there would be
options in Bangkok if it went US there.

Dave