Re: Sydney trip

["peter berrett <pberrett@" <"remove-this-spambait>tbsa.com.au"@inferno.mpx.com.au>]

Dave Proctor wrote


<snip>

>And what is wrong with sharing with a stranger? In my experience, the type of
>people who are prepared to pay for sleeping berths are not the type of people
>to create a ruckus, etc., and if they DO prove to be smelly, etc., do what I
>did - complain to the conductor (they were told to shower or be removed from
>the sleeping car - they were removed from the sleeping car, although he was
>then inflicted on a heap of unfortunates in the sitting car!)

Lack of privacy.

>There are a number of ways you can get the whole twinette compartment for
>yourself - one perfectly legal, one legal, but morally dubious, the third
>legally dubious.

>1. Pay the adult fare for two people, and have sole occupancy.

Ummm... that's a tad expensive

>2. Pay the fare for yourself, and your "four-year old son/daughter" this
>would be a childs fare. Oops, your "son/daughter" has the flu and cannot
>travel, result: sole occupancy - they rarely sell sleeping berths en-route,
>and you would have a justifiable claim for them not to do so (I have two
>tickets here - are on-board staff going to argue with THAT?)

Hey that's a great idea. I shall seriously consider that for my next
trip. 

>3. Book by telephone for two people ON THE SAME BOOKING - different names
>though. Go into the station and pay for your own ticket, telling them that
>the other ticket will be collected later. With the way the TRAINS computer is
>configured, that booking will now be showing as a ticketed booking, and will
>not cancel OR be subject to any followup (this is a major flaw). Result -
>sole occupancy, although subject to reselling en-route. (Not recommended)

???

The option has always existed to have sole occupancy of a twinette - you
have
>just always had to pay for it, thats all.

>Hope this helps,

>David "The Doctor" Proctor

I shall mention the above to Countrylink. It will be interesting to see
what sort of a reply I get. I shall post a reply to the newsgroup also.

cheers Peter