Time for a Lecture

["tony bailey" <mercuryworldtvl@one.net.au>]

TIME FOR A LECTURE

1 am somewhat amazed at the attitude of several contributors to this group
about Countrylinlk North Coast services. So I am attempting to explain here
a few BASIC facts of life.

I realise that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE on this newsgroup will admit to travelling
by Countrylink service, so forgive me if some of the things I say are a bit
basic.

If a member of the public (not a railfan. or a contributor to this
newsgroup, for, remember, ANOOOTNWATTBCS ) comes in and asks me what times
trains operate to Brisbane, I will firstly check EXACTLY where that person
is going - Yes it is necessary - some people have no appreciation of
geography at all - it is not uncommon to be asked if, say, Cairns is north
of Brisbane!



I will explain to  that member of the public that there are TWO services a
day -

One is an overnight service that arrive sin the morning,-

Or there is also a morning service that arrives in Murwillumbah at 8.30 pm
with a bus connection to Brisbane.

You might be surprised at the number of people who opt for the day train -as
well as opt for the coach to train connection at Casino from the Gold Coast
in the morning.

The point of this is that I generate additional revenue by selling people on
the FACT of two possible train connections to Queensland each day.

Some of you have been getting carried away by the termination of one XPT at
Murwillumbah - do you think that if the line extended to Southport, that the
XPT service would turn around at Murwillumbah?

To the members of the travelling public, and to anyone selling tickets,
there ARE two XPT services a day to Queensland - not one.

All of  the ANOOOTNWATTBCS's reading this know there is only one XPT to
Queensland a day - but somehow the travelling public think there are two!

EXTRA coach services-

(this is getting right off topic - but you should like this story)
This should also appeal to those people who think that free enterprise road
services are wonderful and can not do anything wrong, and NEVER EVER put
public safety after the possibility of making a quid (no sir, not us!)

I had a client who travelled by coach to Coffs Harbour every long weekend -
he complained about how uncomfortable it was. but continued to travel by
coach every long weekend until last Easter.

I was surprised when immediately after Easter, he came in and booked by
train to Coffs Harbour for Anzac Day - I asked him what was wrong with his
regular coach service

He told me that he was on one of those wonderful extra services on "Black
Thursday" and the windscreen wipers were not working. If you are a
Sydneysider, do you remember the Easter weather? If you are not a
Sydneysider - consider wet, wet, wet.! The coach left on time and headed up
the highway in the downpour, with absolutely no visibility from the front
and did not pause except at Bulahdelah Mountain where the relief driver
actually attempted to clean the windscreen in the downpour.

Would you have even travelled on that coach?

Tony Bailey