|
Actually Steve, I find it quite refreshing to hear that a sensible country like Oz does crazy stuff like we do.
Our railway is very keen NOT to do Single Line Working, and we have the slightly witty expression "Bustitution" to describe the situation of shutting down the railway and making everyone go by road at weekends and Bank Holidays. It's a doubly whammy because not only do the busses crawl along, but they also wait for ages at some stations.
To be honest though, SLW is itself pretty tortuous. When you get to the start, you're usually waiting for another train to get through the section - or worse still the section may be clear and you ought to be able to go, but the Pilotman is in the wrong place.
We have a contentious situation coming here whereby they're going to be running twin units (8 cars) at last - but it's only going to be during the peaks. So there would have been a chance that people travelling off-peak might all get a seat - just for once, but no we're too mean. The silly part is that it would be easier operationally to keep the trains running around as 8 cars all day, and not waste time and staff splitting them, running one down the sidings, & then rejoining the damn things later. It doesn't seem to make sense, but maybe someone in an office somewhere has decreed that this will save a few pennies.
Hey ho, You have to laugh, as they say
BW
|