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

[Bill Bennett <"billbennett"@ozemail.com.au (spammerjammer)>]

Running peak hour weekend schedules to the Northern Suburbs was plain daft. I had
to stand all the way from Hornsby to Wynyard and most of the way back. The
morning train was so packed people couldn't get on my carriage once we reached
Turramurra.

And I don't even want to talk about the 40 minute wait to change trains at
Hornsby last Tuesday evening.

"C. Dewick" wrote:

> 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
>    Professional Train Driver, Cityrail  |      and rail modelling web site:
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