Re: Violence on Sydney trains

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <7k2miu$6l8$1@news1.mpx.com.au> "John" <Jones@optusnet.com.au> writes:

>How many weeks course is it to drive a train. How come all the train drivers
>I know have trouble speaking properly and are not very good at reading.
>actually I would even consider them to be illiterate. Everyone knows that in
>the past if you don't have any brains join the railway. There is the
>properway and the railway.

Oh joy - we have someone who thinks he knows what he's talking about -
obviously a person who'd rather not have a suburban rail system at all.. 8-)
Time to feed the spam machine again...

I'm not sure how many weeks the course is now. I came to CityRail after 4
years working on freight trains so it was 7 weeks for me, but only because I
had extensive train operation and safeworking knowledge to start with. I
think the last time new drivers were take 'green' off the street the
training period was at least 3 to 4 months long.

>How many train drivers stop at the right stations if it was not for the
>guard calling them in the intercom. They always seem to stop and not stop
>when they are supposed to.

Do you always read the timetable correctly? 8-) I bet you don't, and neither
do we. We're all human remember - drivers and guards make mistakes too, just
like passengers who always get to the station late and then get up in arms
because we've left them behind...

And no, the guard doesn't tell us where to stop - it's call 'prior
knowledge' - ie. experience, combined with checking timetables... Try it
yourself sometime and you'll see that mistakes are easy to make, esp. when
our shifts can start at any time of the day.. There's also a little thing
called operational fatigue which is particular to train working because we
don't have regular sign-on times, etc...

Office workers don't know what fatigue really is... 8-)

>Tell me more train driver, why are you only a train driver, because if you
>were not you would only be a labourer.

I am a *professional* train driver - having been in continuous employ with
State Rail since 1987, most of those years working on trains, that probably
makes me a much more experienced railway person than you.

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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