Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

["M.B. and C.M.McDonald" <michael.and.colleen.mcdonald@xtra.co.nz>]

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.

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.

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.

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
Michael

David Langley wrote in message <37971993.D99D9373@ancc.com.au>...
>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. Pity the train controller who having planned the path
for this
>train along the busy NIMT now had to alter it by 45 minutes. In fact we
were
>around 70 mins late at times and arrived Wellington around 60 late even
though the
>train hostess assured us that the driver was a goer.
>