Chaos on the Currambine line-WA

["Noel Forster" <noelmel@iinet.net.au>]

The punters on the Currambine/ Armadale lines had a slow boat to China ride
home tonight.

The brakes on ( I think) Sets 24/31 on the 1703 Whitfords all stations
locked up at Stirling station causing copious quantities of smoke. This led
to the fire brigade being called and there were 2 tenders in attendance
accompanied by assorted Constables Plodd who blocked off one lane of the
parallel northbound Mitchell Freeway thereby causing more chaos among the
road motorists.

I was lucky enough to catch the 1706 Currambine express to Warwick which
meant we were held at the stick in the section behind the offending sets for
30 minutes. I shudder to think of the disorder at Perth station with all the
punters converging on trains which really weren't going to go too far.

The driver was very good making announcements every 5 minutes about our
progress or lack off.

A couple of my work colleagues would have been on later trains, it will be
interesting to get the story from them tomorrow.

Finally arrived at Joondalup at 1805, an hour sitting on a bum numbing seat
in Set 45 wasn't my idea of fun, mind you the book I was reading is
teriffic. On arrival at Joondalup an announcement was being made that Perth
bound services should recommence by 1815.

As an aside the number of punters whose mobile phones ( mine included) went
off had to be seen to be believed.
In general the Perth suburban system is very good, this was the first glitch
I had encountered since I began commuting by rail before Easter.

NMF