"Fare Comment" letter in today's Daily Telegraph (Sydney, .au)

["C. Dewick" <craigd@lios.apana.org.au>]

Hello,

I'd like to respond to the edited letter titled "Fare Comment", written by
Don Walker of Ashfield, in today's Daily Telegraph.

It is true that the trains are running to weekend timetables. This is
because it's traditionally a slower time of the year for rail transport
operators, and major upgrading and maintenance projects are scheduled for
this period because less people are travelling by train because of
holidays, etc.

However, the following comment is very flawed:

"We, the commuters who still have to travel to work at peak times, are
being squashed into four carriage trains and having to pay full fare for a
day return ticket."

All lines have 6 or 8 car trains operating on every service, with the
exception of the Carlingford line, which I think is closed, but normally
only has 4 car trains anyway because the platforms aren't long enough for
8 car trains.

I'm a driver with CityRail based at Waterfall depot, so most of my shifts
involved a majority of work on the Illawarra line, and there are no 4 car
sets running down here at all.

I can understand Don's upset about having to pay full fare, but if it
wasn't the Christmas holidays, he'd be paying full fare to get to/from
work anyway, so that's not really a justification for a complaint, despite
the fact that Mr Scully has directed CityRail management to charge
concession fares for the remainder of the holiday period up to New Year.

If the trains were actually half-sized (ie. 4 car) then I'd say he has a
valid reason to complain. Otherwise he should take heart from the fact
that we (the train crews) go to work on all the days he, as a regular
commuter, probably has off (ie. public holidays and weekends). 8-)

Regards,

Craig.

--
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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