Slightly Different Slant on Rail Situation

I haven't heard any reminders or special offers from the Metro Light Rail group alerting people in the Inner West to their alternative service.

They might be offering a discount for travellers with periodical rail tickets. They could organize some loop bus runs with chartered buses to take customers from their stops to some of the suburbs more distant from their route - perhaps to link up with SRA stations or to government bus routes that would take commuters across suburbs to other destinations.

At the least this might make space on what trains are running for those who are travelling further out where there isn't much in the way of non-heavy rail car alternative transport.

Are they laying low because they are totally full now? I'd be interested to find out.
After all, I believe they have an agreement that the State Government won't add new or increase any competing bus or train routes in the area they cover, so you'd think there might be some sort of moral debt to the travelling public if the Light Rail is making sure that there aren't transport alternatives in that area.

Name Martin Olmos
Visit Time 09:06:40 11 Feb, 2004 EST
Town/City Westmead
Topic Rail system
Remarks
Sally,
This is what happens when we chip away at a system in the name of 'efficiency' to the point where they become very fragile. Each little chip will allow someone to say they've cut costs and create efficiencies, but it just leaves the system more vulnerable to outside events. As a general rule, when a system reaches 80-90% of its capacity, it starts to thrash and is very unstable. We need spare capacity to keep our infrastructure robust.

Here's a lesson for the other infrastructure systems we rely on: electricity, water, roads, etc.
Cheers,
Marty

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Name steven Mcwhirter
Visit Time 09:12:41 11 Feb, 2004 EST
Town/City asquith
Topic trains
Remarks
Maybe if we took away the taxpayer funded cars from costa and carr, forced them to use the public transport system that they have taylored to this point.maybe then the system would work, or maybe they'd even care..

I'd like to put strong support for Marty Olmos' point about the fallacy of 'efficiency' and 'productivity' and the way the concepts are twisted around in business and utilities.
If the Sydney Harbour Bridge had been built in that kind of 'efficient' and 'productive' way, we'd either have had to rebuild it several times or (admittedly a tempting daydream for those dedicated to public transport) limit the private traffic allowed over it.

It's also comforting to hear other people like Steve McWhirter arguing my opinion:
Everyone responsible for funding, planning or organizing transport (and it might be well to extend it to those developing, redeveloping or planning areas who need to take such an important facility & amenity into account) should have to spend at least one fortnight in midsummer & another in midwinter travelling for every journey by the public transport system. Not just work & back, but shopping, socialising, etc. - preferably also taking children or elderly parents around.

To avoid them getting lifts or taking taxis they'd need to be tagged with a large brightly coloured wristband or something (eartag?) which is hard to take off or hide & easy to spot.
The taxi fare would have to be, say, 3-5 times the usual, for people with these tags to 'level the playing field' back to the equivalent impact on one of median/average income ($35,000 - $45,000). It would be possible to help them in, say, medical emergencies, but if it wasn't an emergency the lift-giver would face a stiff penalty if caught - of course, there would be rewards for spotting a taggee entering or leaving a car so that detection would be fairly likely.

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 2/11/2004 09:26:00 pm