Re: Bluebirds are go?

["Michael Kurkowski" <gunzel@gunzel.net>]

:Given they can obviously make enough Sprinters free to run the service like
:this, why don't they just use Sprinters and send the Bluebirds back to
S.A.?
:It would save them time and money fiddle faddling round with what are
:obviously unreliable rail cars and in the hiring and testing and repair
:costs associated with them.


Because if they waste the available money on something else, it's an excuse
not to have surplus money to put into more needed things, like new suburban
rolling stock. More and more often now i am hearing announcements like "the
4:02 alamein train will not run due to a shortage of trains" which i heard
last wednesday.

The other thing i have noticed in the last month or so, is the sudden
increase in the useage of "Z" type cars by VLP. Is this due to patronage
increasing? (Considering the timetabling changes were only made last week).

One final thing that someone might be able to answer me on. On friday i saw
a 5 car N set (yes, 5) behind an N class loco, on a morning up service into
Spencer Street, at North Melbourne. The 5th car was identified as a "BTN",
which also appears to be a heavily refurbished AZ or ACZ (didnt pay too much
attection to the detail, however did have close together windows as to
suggest it was once an first class car).

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Michael.
gunzel@gunzel.net