Re: Booked out Melb XPTs

[David Langley <del@ancc.com.au>]

"M.B. and C.M.McDonald" wrote:

> 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.

It was just after Easter but not the actual Easter period. There might have been
a member of the station staff assisting with luggage but he took no part in the
booking procedure. Even your 10-15 minutes is unacceptable, I have yet to
understand why the train can't load passengers without the train staff having to
get off and escort them to their carriage, place their luggage in the van and
then signal the train to depart. Never saw it done better than around 5 minutes
even at the smallest of stations. The system needs changing, I can think of no
reason save for the lack of a proper booking system, for it to be so slow.

>
> 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.

During the Easter period we (a party of 16) joined the Overlander at Hamilton
and the 12 on the group ticket had been allocated seats but the other four of us
who had individual tickets (and in the case of our two, booked and confirmed
some months prior) were left of the seating list. The train manager was very
apologetic and said that would have to sit in the observation car seats. Before
he finished saying this, all you could see was the dust left by our galloping
shoes.

>
> 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.

I'd love to know what possible reason there could be for keeping such a system.
When you find out please let us know.

>
> 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

David Langley