Re: Country(link?) - try walking instead

["Dave Proctor" <daproc@sd5.mailbank.com>]

Jack <bd107@tsn.cc> wrote in message
_HNR3.139$z73.3997@nsw.nnrp.telstra.net">news:_HNR3.139$z73.3997@nsw.nnrp.telstra.net...

> >All I ask are fairly simple things,
> >1. Close to on time running.
>
> Sure, I would liket that as well, but point the finger where it
belongs....
> Track work, congestion, No priority in Train pathing, train contollers who
> prefer to stand passenger trains with 400 odd people on them for late
> running MT freight services, strangely enuff NRC Trains all the time....

Funny you should say that - we left Broken Hill on time last night, and our
first delay was at Menindee - they put us into the loop so that a late
running NR could go through on the main. By the time we then set back and
got into the platform (we had passengers boarding AND alighting) we were 20
minutes late.

I woke up at about 5.45 this morning - looked out the window and saw that we
were passing a triangle junction - as I was not fully awake, I assumed
Orange (not unreasonable, given that we were due to arrive at 5.51) - it was
Parkes - 2 hours and 10 minutes late by the time we left Parkes.

Discussions with the crew indicated that the delay at Menindee meant that we
lost our path, and we had to wait 50 minutes at one loop for an NR train and
another hour elsewhere for the I-P.

Having said that, the management of the late running was woeful. Rather than
running the train into Orange and having the loco run around, why couldn't
they bring everyone out to East Fork. They could have chartered a bus to do
this (30 minute charter - not overly expensive) - that bus could have then
taken those detraining back into Orange. This would have enabled the train
to regain over 30 minutes.

There was also a passenger travelling to Canberra on SP21 - she well and
truely missed it, so they rebooked her on SP23 (arrival 2210). A little bit
of lateral thinking would have seen her leave the train at Orange, get the
Countrylink coach to Cootamundra (arr. 1300), change to the Canberra coach
(dep. 1400) arriving in Canberra at 1645 - only an hour after she would have
arrived otherwise.

There are delays that are beyond the control of Countrylink (like the points
failure at Goobang on the way up on Wednesday) - you cannot blame them for
this, but you *can* blame them for the way they manage the delays.

Another example - with the above mentioned points failure, after we had not
moved in the middle of the triangle for over 50 minutes, and not a peep from
the crew over the PA, I asked the PSS what the problem was - she said that
she did not know. I rang the State Rail switchboard, asked for Orange
Control, and found out (I told the PSS). A little bit of effort to keep
passengers informed can generate a lot of goodwill, and prevent people from
getting up tight.

--
DaveProctor
thadocta AT dingoblue.net.au