Richard Jones' Log: Melbourne train system...
Wed, 11 May 2005
This will probably only make sense to Melbournians. I was riding home last night in one of the ancient Hitachi trains. 13 degrees (Celcius for foreigners ;) outside, but we had to have the windows open anyway to get some fresh air in. On the window is one of those stickers "Fare Evasion Is Stealing". Someone had scribbled under it "Making us pay to ride in this crappy train is robbery."
It's not unique to Melbourne. Try the tube [1] in the middle of Summer.
Where I swear they keep the heating on just for a laugh. On a rush hour train it can get really rather uncomfortable.
[1] London Underground for the unintiated
Mind The Gap
As I rode to Richmond (thankfully I didn't have to go further) last night packed in like a sardine, I wondered whether our govt. expects that they will increase public transport use from 7% to 20% in the next 15 years by providing three times as many trains, or by expecing me to shrink by a factor of three.
Sadly, I'm expecting the latter. Idiots.
[rant]
Ministers should be required to travel by public transport, be treated in public hospitals and spend one month a year living on welfare. Then we'll see how quickly things improve for the rest of us.
[/rant]