Leigh :) Stark
pulled out his telescope and saw
Posts Tagged ‘sydney transport’
Why do the trains bother to have timetables?
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Why do the trains have timetables? Wouldn't it just be easier to have some random prick with an STA vest on telling people in a calm yet authorative nature that the train will be arriving eventually and if you manage to get where you're meant to be going, you're one of the lucky ones.
It appears we're in a train crisis… or a time crisis. Or a train time crisis.
Trains don't work. Carriages are getting fewer in number. I'm leaving earlier and arriving later than I had when I'd left later.
What the hell is wrong, Mr. Iemma that you can't fix something as puny as a transit system running to a a schedule and not to a concept plan that exists in the mind of a man perpetually late to a never ending wedding.
Tags: sydney transport
Posted in Random Notes | No Comments »
A most curious thing
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
If you've ever been on a bus, you know that you can see some of the most interesting things if you happen to have a keen interest in the field of behavioural science.
Manners, for instance, is one thing that always seems to surprise me. It just must not be taught to people anymore. We're going to have to bring out a video game where Halo's Spartan 117 teaches people how to not be rude..
A sense of self-importance and urgency goes in there too. The whole idea of "first come, first serve" or in this case "first come, first board" means a whole lot of nothing when you add in a pinch of "I've got somewhere to be and I'm going to relay my angst by how much shoving I do while I flare my nostrils."
This morning though, I saw a most curious thing. It's something I've never seen before and I'm still not entirely sure what it is.
Tags: sydney transport, vanity
Posted in ...and Everything, Life, Random Notes | No Comments »
Lazy trains on phone’s last day
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
It seems like I'm seeing more and more people sick of their job than ever lately. Maybe it's the climate. Maybe we're still clinging to our roots of a vacation country.
Maybe we're underpaid and the government continues to rip more wages off of us.
I could sleep for hours today. I bet the lady announcing the stops on the train could too. You can hear the lifelessness in her voice. She doesn't even care about if we're clueless on this train, only announcing the stop we're at in a tired who-gives-a-shit tone.
She's even making me sleepy.
This is my last day of the JasJam. That's probably the worst part of being a reviewer: giving stuff back. I've grown especially fond of this phone's keyboard which has allowed so many blogs to come to fruition. It's actually not the greatest phone and I see it more or less as a typewriter with GSM connectivity. Its battery life certainly indicates that it's better suited for typing rather than speaking allowing for maybe three times as much life when using the former (approx. 3 days to 1 day as a vocal communicator).
Running Windows, it has an incredibly irritating knack for moving the typing cursor at random moments to what I think is a fixed number of spaces back. Notepad does the same thing when it saves which makes me wonder if "Word Mobile" is little more than an oversized version of Notepad for the Windows Mobile system.
So this will be the last blog typed on these sets of keys. Despite constantly getting new toys to play with, the phone testing surplus has more or less dried up. I feel I'm going to actually have to b-b-buy a phone. My K750i is somewhere in my room and I can't find it, and even if I could, it was such a heap of shit I'd be very surprised if it ever actually accepted a phone call or did anything that wasn't aimed at a result of its own demise.
Yes, the Sony Ericsson K750i is a suicidal phone.
I don't know what it is. Maybe I'm just drained.
Tags: sydney transport
Posted in ...and Everything, Life, Reviews, Technology, Work | No Comments »
Yet another Sydney Transport rant…
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
While most people who read this blog will know that I quite often make comments against Sydney Buses & CityRail, those who know me will know that I don't do it because they're an easy target.
I do it because they never learn from their problems and treat the customers of that service with as little respect as they can muster.
Case in point: today, September 26th 2007.
Sydney Transport usually doesn't progress beyond the rank of "bad". Services rarely run anywhere near remotely on time in the mornings and the afternoon & evenings have the issues of too few train cars stuck on busy services. To put it mildly, it's not run intelligently.
Today however brings a whole new definition of the word bad. I don't even believe bad correctly covers it. I'll think up some words that I can use to describe the all-around service of both the buses and trains today.
Tags: sydney transport
Posted in ...and Everything | No Comments »
Back to the grind
Monday, September 17th, 2007
As I walk into the train station, I automatically think to myself "back to the grind". It feels as if someone has put my chores, my efforts, my wallet, and my energy into a blender and hit puree and it's only Monday.
The train station is packed. That's my CityRail! Always doing their job of running on or somewhere near the brink of nowhere near on time! The services look to be running somewhere between 4 and 10 minutes late. The trains normally leave from both platforms but the second platform is only being used for terminating inbound trains so those of us waiting are out of luck.
I walk past the people on the platform as the train slowly makes its way in. A girl with too much lip gloss on has the appearance of a woman lost to hard drugs, her lower lip jutted out while tired eyes beckon the attention of someone wanted, none undesired. Business-man, business-woman.
You don't seek the individuals; they seek you.
As I leave the train at Town Hall to jump to the next – another part of my daily grind – I realise that I'm passing more individuals. The single mother who still holds onto her wedding band because she can't move on. The rushed lawyer who slept with the new girl last night.
Tired faces don't start anew; they merely get older and more tired.
The trains are late on the North Sydney line too. It's not just the Eastern Suburbs line. That's usually significant of some greater issue at fault like a broken down train at Parramatta or in another place affecting delays. That's what the signs tell us anyway. "Did you know…" they begin appealing to our more inquisitive nature than anything else. Oh look! It's CityRail trivia!
Another excuse, another exercise in spin.
The lady next to me in this late packed sardine can of commute looks at my fingernails as they grip the pole in the middle of the carriage. She can see the flecks of dry skin tired of all my selfish nail picking. I curl my toes, the same sort of damage done to them by way of my aggressive nail habit. It hurts a little. I really should stop picking at them. She looks beyond the fingers now, the cheap red frames of her glasses catching the one ray of light present in this cabin and running with it. As the train arrives, she composes herself making sure she's calm, controlled, and confident. The doors close behind her.
It's all the same.
The same tired faces that know a weekend isn't long enough and yearn for more.
And as my train approaches the desolate concrete paradise that is St. Leonards, I just think it's back to the grind…
Tags: sydney transport
Posted in ...and Everything, Life, Work | No Comments »