Country(link?) - try walking instead

["nobody" <dweebken@NOSPAM.yahoo.com>]

Recently we drove to Port Macquarie for holidays.  My son followed us up on
the XPT from Sydney to Wauchope, then countrylink bus to Port Macquarie on
the following Tuesday.  We booked the ticket for him a few weeks in advance.

In trying to book the tickets, my 17 y.o. son rang Countrylink, and they
gave him a reference no. and told him to pay for and pick up the ticket at
Hornsby Station.  He went there the next day and the station staff told him
"the computer is down", and that he would have to go to Chatswood instead.
The next day he went to Chatswood, and he was told the office was being
renovated and they weren't selling tickets so he'd have to go to St Leonards
(I think it was).  So we called Countrylink at home and asked them where in
the heck can we actually get this ticket?  They said that Hornsby couldn't
sell it to us the day we tried because the staff were on strike, there was
nothing wrong with the computer that day...  We told them of the run-around
we were given, and they said I could pay for it with a credit card over the
phone and they'd mail it to me.  I said fine and gave them the details and
asked when would I receive the tickets - they said they were "really busy"
and didn't know...  So I asked them when should I call if I haven't received
them - and I was told Friday fortnight.  Lucky we didn't want to travel that
day!!!

Anyway, the ticket arrived in the post and my son eventually caught his
train.  My wife and I waited and waited and waited and waited at the Port
Macquarie bus terminus for the bus that didnt arrive.  This was late at
night... of course.  The locals told us that the bus was "always late" and
half an hour to an hour late was the normal arrival time.  There wasn't even
a phone number in the bus shelter where we could call country link to find
out what happened to the train.  The bus was near to an hour late.

A week after we got home my wife had to go to the Port again.  Again the bus
was very late getting into Port Macquarie because the train was late getting
into Wauchope...  I'm not impressed.  On the way home, she tried to order
some scones with her morning tea but was told she couldn't have scones
unless she'd pre-ordered them - you see they had to be ordered well before
the train got to Wauchope because they had to cook them, so those who get on
at Wauchope have no hope of getting scones.  Why would anyone WANT to catch
a train anywhere when faced with this kind of treatment is what I don't
understand - unless there's no alternative.