The Rodeo

30 Days of writing: Day 24

CityRail gives the impression of being run by the most inept people possible. I think that no matter who is in charge of anything at CityRail, they are almost certainly the wrong person for the job*. Almost every aspect of the NSW rail service is terrible, mismanaged and begging for someone sensible to step in and provide a few pointers. Someone like myself.

I believe I am completely unqualified to make any sweeping pronouncements regarding how to run a multi-million dollar public service, but I have been travelling every day on said train service for the last decade and have therefore seen some of the things that should be common sense for anyone running these things.

Let’s start small; if a service does what it is supposed to do well then people will forgive the little things. If it cannot, then the little things start to build up.

1. The new train information monitors installed at Central Station today. They look great; plasma screens are the perfect medium for displaying this information. However, when replacing something as important as notifying passengers which train travels to which destination and when they depart don’t hide the monitors behind the station’s support structures. They need to be visible. This really isn’t rocket science people.

2. The information sticker that drives Sim to distraction constantly.
   “Help us keep our trains clean.
   Please take your rubbish with you.
   Report unclean carriages by
   phoning 131 500 and quote the
   carriage number.”
   You’d think that before putting hundreds of these stickers into production They’d get someone to proofread the text for grammar. Someone needs to explain that you shouldn’t use two different tenses in the one phrase.

3. That last problem actually brings me to my next point. Rather than relying on people phoning in to report ‘unclean’ carriages, why not provide bins. It seems like a fairly sensible thing to offer.

4. While we are on the topic of bins, who’s great idea was it to remove all the bins from stations? I can understand the logic behind removing them during the Olympics for ’security reasons’, but perhaps someone should put them back now that the Olympics finished about five years ago…

5. People who can speak intelligible English should have priority for any public speaking roles. Such as announcing timetables and the like.

6. A fundamental issue when running transport services should be getting people where they want to go as quickly and efficiently as possible. Running on time is a big part of this, along with letting people know why their train has been delayed, along with how long the delay is expected to last. Giving an explanation wouldn’t go astray either…

7. Oh, please stop putting up ticket prices every time I have to get another ticket.

Anyway, that’s enough complaining for tonight

*There are of course a few notable exceptions: Chris Parr, ex-Station Master of Woodford, and Dave, Station Master at Hazelbrook, are both excellent representatives of the group of people who should be running CityRail. These two guys are fantastic - say hello if you ever run into them. Oh, and the train driver who gives the fantastic speeches every so often: “…please, enjoy your meal, but please, please, remember to take your rubbish with you.” That guy is fantastic too :). Everyone else should be sacked.

-RodeoClown

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