Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

I too have suffered from TranzRail's appallingly customer-unfriendly
checkin methods: slow and causing delays.  Why is it that rail copies the
worst aspects of air travel, rather than capitalising on its own virtues?
Amtrak is no better.  Passengers are locked off platforms until last
minute, with no seat reservations.  On the word go, the gate is open and
they stampede along the platform to be herded into the right carriage by
officious conductors, then battle for a seat.  I really sympathised with
one little old lady with a walking stick when I encountered the system for
the first time.  However, she was more savvy than I realised: when the
barrier opened, she used the stick to nobble the first two in the queue,
then was at the front of the processing, fending off all potential
overtakers with her weapon.

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

M.B. and C.M.McDonald <michael.and.colleen.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz> wrote in
article 
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.
> 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.

> >Eddie Oliver wrote:
> >> a) If you believe that, go to New Zealand (unless they have seen the
> >> light and changed the system) and see the chaos that results from that
> >> system (and note how long it takes at intermediate stations).
> >Last year in NZ the southbound Northlander took 45 minutes loading at
> Hamilton
> >because the only staff were the train staff - 2 and there were a large
> number of
> >passengers waiting.