Re: Country(link?) - try walking instead

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

Dion Williams <onamission@start.com.au> wrote in message
381ABF74.50E6@start.com.au">news:381ABF74.50E6@start.com.au...

> The bottom line is how the average paying customer perceives the service
> they receive, and the average paying customer doesn't have a clue about
> pathing philosophy or short crossing loops and doesn't care. All they
> want is to get to where they're going, faster than the alternatives with
> cost factored in, on time and in reasonable comfort, or else they'll
> take the bus or fly. There may well be good reasons why Countrylink
> services often run late but it begs the question, why aren't they tabled
> later to accommodate those possibilities? Or more to the point, what are
> the hurdles to bettering on-time performance? Both are questions the
> average traveller would ask in response to the discussions above. You
> can lecture people familiar with rail operations all day on why services
> aren't as good as they could be but those people are about 1% of current
> and, more importantly, potential rail travellers.

A very good point, Dion - we who have an interest in railways sometimes know
and appreciate the operational difficulties. The average member of the
community does not,and does not WANT to know.

They are generally faced with two options - and they are a train that has
run late the last (insert number) of times they caught it, or a coach (which
was on time). I know the times I caught coaches (and I used to work for some
coach lines, so I know the FACTS) they are extraordinarily reliable
timewise.

Most will overwhelmingly go for the reliability, unless the cost
differential convinces them.

--
DaveProctor
thadocta AT dingoblue.net.au