Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

[Eddie Oliver <eoliver@efs.mq.edu.au>]

WhaleOilBeefHooked wrote:

> Rubbish - if anything, it would reassure passengers that groups will be
> sitting together. I have seen it happen where a group of three, on a heavily
> booked service, are sitting in Car E seats 14 and 67 and car G seat 34. At
> least allocating it all out prior to departure will prevent this from
> happening.

You are confusing the issues. If people book late (relative to the
fullness of the train), they should recognise that they are lucky to get
what is available. Everybody else should not suffer.

> >and more significantly, the
> >allocation-prior-to-departure process either (a) delays the train and
> >creates pressures for the passengers, as in the appalling system
> >operated by TranzRail in New Zealand, or (b) requires passengers to
> >attend at their joining point earlier than would otherwise be required.
> 
> Not really. All they have to do is send out a computer printout of all the
> passengers in alphabetical order (not THAT hard to do) and it would take
> barely a minute for someone to find a seat. We are not talking full check in
> procedures here (a la coach and plane).

(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).

(b) Roughly 200 people often get on an XPT at (say) Strathfield. Are you
going to require all these people to be there long enough in advance to
go through the 1 minute each, or are you going to have 200 employees
each serving one person for one minute, or what?

Eddie