Six days to go until the Commonwealth Games…
(Based on the Rexona advert. Pic from CPT.)
I (with my PTUA hat on) got an invitation to the swimming, plus a breakfast function hosted by John Thwaites. We had a chat about it and decided that given it wasn’t a lobbying opportunity, it wasn’t appropriate for an organisation that regularly criticises the government to accept the tickets.
Besides — 7:45am on a Saturday? You gotta be kidding. That’s serious sleeping-in time. So I turned it down.
By the way, regular train users: given how bad Connex was in February, if you have a monthly or longer ticket, send it in for compensation. A free Daily ticket isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing.
9 replies on “Six days to go”
Here we have to travel like this all the time:
http://www.amersol.edu.pe/_dauger/photos/lima/images/combi3.jpg
If we get a bad service… it’s our problem.. no refunds… NEVER….
I can’t wait to compare this with your public transport service… which I heard is one of the best in the world. Would it be true?..:)
What I don’t get is that the fare-paying commuters are being forced out and told not to travel so that Commonwealth Games spectators, who get free travel as part of their games ticket, and tourists can travel instead!
I’ve quit work and am going on the dole rather than put up with this when The Games are on.
It would all be a lot better if the system only took your money upon providing the service. So if the validator only validated the ticket once you were on board a vehicle. As it is, the system will sell you a ticket that you might not ever be able to use (such as an Off-Peak saver – ever seen a sign telling customers when one of those is valid? Try getting a refund for one of those after realising how useless it is).
I meant to mention to you about the train which my sister caught a couple of weeks ago which was meant to stop at Seddon (where I was patiently waiting in nearly 40 degrees heat) but which went sailing past as the driver forgot to stop at a few stations. My sister rang me in a panic saying that she was at Newport and didn’t know what to do. No nice public announcement to say sorry folks about this but we’ll make sure you get the next train back and can get off at your correct stop. Instead all bewildered passengers were left to sort out amongst themselves which train to get back. For someone like my sister who doesn’t venture over this side of town very often I would imagine it would be fairly daunting to see your station go zooming by.
And three cheers for snubbing the offer Daniel. My vote is to give away all those unsold tickets to the people who are least likely to be able to afford them and also those who do something for their community in general. Why not hand them out to volunteer organisations and offer them to unpaid volunteers or something along those lines.
Roby: I think it’s fair to say that Melbourne’s public transport is not the worst, but it’s certainly not the best either.
Daniel. Al least is it the best in Australia??…:)
Check this out…
http://www.liveinvictoria.vic.gov.au/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=74&languageId=1&contentId=-1
Yes, well, that web page is government propaganda!
What I would say is that about a third of Melbourne (those areas within walking distance of tram and train services; and the handful of frequent, fulltime bus services) has reasonable public transport, good enough that even people with cars will use it for some trips.
If you live in or travel to the other two-thirds of the city, anybody who has a choice will drive, unless you enjoy living your life by (infrequent) bus timetables and don’t mind waiting between connections.
So glad I’m not here when the games are on in earnest. SO. GLAD. I get one day of it. The trains have been running 5 mins behind schedule for the past two weeks (at least on my line) and now there’s not even a pre-recorded announcement to say so. What really steams me is that they’re giving out dailies when it should be at LEAST a weekly ticket for compensation and the fact that the government and games organisers have the audacity to actually say to people to either go on holidays or change their work schedules. Bugger off! I will use PT when I WANT to and if that means nudging some non-paying-games-going idiot off the train so I can get home after a shitty day at work, then I will not hesitate to do so.
But like I said, I’m not here, so it’s moot for me.