Re: Melbourne Public transport for Special events

[Michael <mk@netstra.com.au>]

Hi,

Try tell that to the many tens to hundreds of thousands of Victorians who 
have to work a 6 day week and don't get any other time to do the shopping. 
Sometimes it's very convenient to have Sunday trading anyway, I know it has 
certainly done good for me. 

I fully agree with Paul's comments re buses on weekends. Where I used to 
live, the only way I could go shopping was to catch a bus to Northland 
(sometime's the shops in Reservoir just didn't quite cut it). During the 
weekdays it was great to have the 555 bus service (Epping-Northland) at tne 
end of my street. As for Saturdays the bus service was that pittiful it was 
quicker to take a bike from Reservoir to Northland. As for Sunday, what bus 
service? 

Unfortunately for you Ben, Sunday trading is here to stay, since it is very 
unlikely for it to go back to 6 days a week trading. If shops did not find 
it profitable to open on Sunday's, they wouldn't have (in most cases, 
sometimes the larger shopping centres like Southland, Northland, etc force 
the shop as part of the lease to open 7 days. At least this was the case a 
while ago...)

Getting back to rail, we all remember Upfield had no Sunday service up 
until recently. Two weeks, no more, after it reopened, I witnessed a down 
Upfield train sitting at Flinders Street on a Sunday evening, about 7pm, 
almost packed. Who says extra services won't bring in more passengers and 
money? They just have to try. 

Unfortunately this wasn't the case under a government run railway, they 
were more interested in getting people into cars. Rightly so however, just 
look how much they are making from petrol taxes, registration, now road 
tolls and other bits. Roads make them more money.

Regards
Michael

Ben Thomas said on 27-Sep-1999 in <37EEDDB8.70783912@unico.com.au>:

>
>Coz the private companies are only interested in profit.
>
>Sunday shopping is silly anyway.  There aren't enough people spending
>money to require another day of open shops. Sure some people find it
>more convenient to be able to shop late at night or on Sunday, but most
>shops can't afford the extra day. Perhaps if shops were closed on Sunday
>the shops could afford to have more staff every other day to provide
>better service, so unemployment would go down.... eek, that sounds
>reasonable, better stop now. 
>