Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

["Michael McDonald" <michael.and.colleen.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz>]

David Langley wrote in message <37A2A523.EB88F5F2@ancc.com.au>...
>"M.B. and C.M.McDonald" wrote:
>
>> You seem to have struck an unusual situation there David, with a large
group
>> of passengers _and_ no staff present at the situation.  I see several
>> departures of the Overlander per year and have not seen any comparable
>> incidents.  The longest delays I have seen there would be no more than
15-20
>> minutes.  Time is also taken up by the loco change and the loading of
>> luggage into the van.  I have never seen the station unattended for
>> passenger train arrivals/departures, except for the northbound Northerner
>> which goes through at the ungodly hour of 04:45 or so.
>
>It was just after Easter but not the actual Easter period. There might have
been
>a member of the station staff assisting with luggage but he took no part in
the
>booking procedure. Even your 10-15 minutes is unacceptable, I have yet to
>understand why the train can't load passengers without the train staff
having to
>get off and escort them to their carriage, place their luggage in the van
and
>then signal the train to depart. Never saw it done better than around 5
minutes
>even at the smallest of stations. The system needs changing, I can think of
no
>reason save for the lack of a proper booking system, for it to be so slow.


I agree time the taken is longer than desirable.  In these days of good
mobile communications it should be possible for passengers to be given their
seat numbers before the train arrives.  I would like to know why the current
method was chosen.  I can't be precise about when the current system was
instituted - before then you were able to get straight on to the train.
Large numbers of passengers embarking/disembarking at intermediate stations
is always going to take time if most of the luggage has to be loaded in the
van - the new "Scenic Series" carriages (ex BR rebuilds) may improve this as
I believe the plan is to allow more space for luggage in the vestibule of
the carriages.

>>
>> One departure I witnessed did pick up a group travelling together, and,
as
>> expected, only the tour leader was involved in dealings with the staff.
>
>During the Easter period we (a party of 16) joined the Overlander at
Hamilton
>and the 12 on the group ticket had been allocated seats but the other four
of us
>who had individual tickets (and in the case of our two, booked and
confirmed
>some months prior) were left of the seating list. The train manager was
very
>apologetic and said that would have to sit in the observation car seats.
Before
>he finished saying this, all you could see was the dust left by our
galloping
>shoes.


I would have given you a bit of competition!

>>
>> I do agree the methods used are a bit slow and I would like to see them
>> streamlined.  There are probably good reasons why the current system is
>> used.  It is very easy for the "outsider" to say that procedures should
be
>> changed.
>
>I'd love to know what possible reason there could be for keeping such a
system.
>When you find out please let us know.


I'm not privy to those decisions.

>> Had an interesting experience on the Southerner earlier this year.  A
pair
>> of tourists caught the wrong train at Dunedin!  The train stopped at
Mosgiel
>> to drop them off and allow the Taieri Gorge train to pick them up.  Not
bad
>> for a station that sees only 3 or 4 departures per day!
>
>cheers
>
>David Langley


Ditto
Michael McDonald