Omnimaga
General Discussion => Other Discussions => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Jonius7 on February 28, 2012, 04:02:39 am
-
Hi,
Almost forgot to mention the chaos I encountered this morning!
I live on the Gold Coast, in Queensland, Australia.
I went to my regular train station (Varsity Lakes train station) this morning on the way to go to school, and I noticed that there were a lot of people waiting outside at the entrance to the station. On arrival one of the people from my school said that all trains were cancelled for at least the next hour! Madness, at peak hour! Luckily I got my mum to drive me to school (I am old enough to get a driver's license and should have drove there myself), but for some other people, they had to wait for an hour and arrive at school late.
Later that day I checked the news online, that it was a powerline fault at Roma Street Station, one of the major stations in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. Chaos reigned today from 4:30am from what I heard, but nothing could match peak hour with everyone just left with few options but to take buses or taxis or drive by car. Of course that meant lots of traffic.
The public transport system is quite underdone in Australia if you compare to other countries such as China, France, Japan and US, and Queensland isn't exactly the best in the country either. So today's event to me showed how much we need upgrades to public transport here, a subway would be nice (though that won't happen), and improvements are still a few years away.
Also btw, here is an image of Varsity Lakes Station: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/691/varsitylakesstationopenh.jpg/
See what you guys think,
Jonius7
-
I hate that kind of stuff X.x. Over here several years ago, city buses would often stop working and we would end up getting late at places. I also dislike how in my city past midnight there is no city bus service at all and during morning it starts only at 6 AM on week days and 7 AM on weekends (8 AM for some bus rides). In some cases this can make it hard to travel around. For example I can't even go out late at night with Juju or other people if nobody can take us back at home in car.
Of course there are cabs but early in the morning sometimes there aren't a lot so when you call, sometimes nobody answers. When I went to Ottawa two weeks ago, I had to try 3 taxi phone numbers before I get an answer. X.x
-
Oh wow, things sounds pretty bad in Canada too. In Quebec though? I wonder how it is in Toronto. Surely could be a bit better.
On my trip to Melbourne I discovered how good trams were. It's a subway without the underground tunnels needing to be excavated and can service many places. And it works!
Brisbane had trams but they removed them like years and years ago.
In some cases we may have gone backwards in public transport.
-
In the US it depends on what city you are in. New York and larger cities main form of transport is The subway or cabs. I'm in a pretty big city, but we have no subways, and cabs are expensive and not used that often. If you are taking public transport here, most likely it is the bus (which seem to be pretty reliable). The only problem with this though is that the buses don't run after certain hours. A great many people here have cars though, I can't imagine trying to get around without one here.
-
Well, I live in the same town as DJ, so yeah. But when it works, well it works pretty well.
-
we have buses here, though they stop operating after 2 PM
-
we have buses here, though they stop operating after 2 PM
I wonder how that works. How about peak hour at 5-6PM?
@Art_of_camelot how about trains in your city?
Also some Gold Coast Bus drivers get attacked. Crime rates on the Gold Coast went up significantly last year.
-
Trains... there is a train system, but I don't know where it runs to/from and if it's a straight trip or has stops (I rode it once on a school trip to a neighboring city). I don't think it's used very much. There is a light rail system as well, but it only covers a small area.
-
Hm, public transport seems decent around here (just looked, apparently there's three bus lines a block away from my house 0.o). Tho I guess this is a densely-populated area :P
Apparently I could go and stalk leafy after about an hour and a half en route...not that I would or anything..
<.<
-
Also talk about transport fail: Due to financial issues, they are cutting in service rather than increasing prices again now here and now I can't even go to hockey games with Juju anymore except on Sundays. X.x
-
I live in the suburbs. I run when it's practical (if it's only a few miles and I'm not carrying anything) and otherwise my parents drive me.
We also have school buses, but that's not really public transportation :P
-
Also talk about transport fail: Due to financial issues, they are cutting in service rather than increasing prices again now here and now I can't even go to hockey games with Juju anymore except on Sundays. X.x
Prices here have gone up 50% or so in the last few years.
-
I remember when we lived in South Korea, I was 5 hours late for elementary school, because the bus schedules got fked up...
I got spanked
-
You lived in South Korea? What nationality are you?
That seems pretty unfair to get spanked because of the bus schedules. Did other people get affected too?
-
Also talk about transport fail: Due to financial issues, they are cutting in service rather than increasing prices again now here and now I can't even go to hockey games with Juju anymore except on Sundays. X.x
Prices here have gone up 50% or so in the last few years.
Ouch that sucks.
Over here the price increase was mostly in the '90s, where bus went from $2.00 to 2.75 in like 4 years, even on weekends. After many complaints and the fact bus here was most expensive than most cities, they froze prices until about 4 years later when gas prices started to skyrocket. They almost went bankrupt so they were forced to start increasing prices again and again and it eventually peaked at $3.60 (although during weekends it was $2.20 for me and $1.10 for people under 24). Eventually things got better and they decided to reduce prices to $3 and $2 to attract more customers, then froze regular prices (although the monthly pass still increases a bit). However since last year gas prices started to skyrocket again and instead of increasing prices, they decided to remove most of the the extra services they had added last Summer to cut on costs. I personally would rather pay an extra $0.25 per ride and have services at night, though.
-
Oh wow they actually reduced prices. Not sure if that would attract more public transport users. From a long term perspective anyway.
Also I forgot to mention that as a result of the failure on Tuesday, there was free transport the next day. Now that attracted a lot of people. Trains were getting full in the afternoon.
It was expected to cost the State Government $1 million.
-
So, today I normally went to the train station and got in my train. When it didn't leave 10 minutes later, I tried to find out what happened.
Bruchsal Bahnhof(the station by my school), had lost power for 7 out of its 8 tracks. Then, an announcement came through: they were sending busses as a replacement. The first bus going to my destination was full to the brim as I got there, forcing me to wait an hour for the next.
Eventually, I got home 2 and a half hours late. :mad:
-
O_o
I remember when I missed a major test for one of my classes because the public bus system was closed for a holiday and they never really announced it.
Luckily I was able to take the test later...
I wonder what had gone wrong in your case.
-
So, today I normally went to the train station and got in my train. When it didn't leave 10 minutes later, I tried to find out what happened.
Bruchsal Bahnhof(the station by my school), had lost power for 7 out of its 8 tracks. Then, an announcement came through: they were sending busses as a replacement. The first bus going to my destination was full to the brim as I got there, forcing me to wait an hour for the next.
Eventually, I got home 2 and a half hours late. :mad:
In my case, once, I finished work earlier and got into the bus that departs 30 minutes earlier, so I didn't have to wait 25 minutes at the bus stop. However the bus didn't leave until 30 minutes later because the driver was busy talking on his cellphone with friends and family.
Oh and although our bus transit service improved a lot over the last 9 years, I still dislike how there's no more service from 12 AM to 6 AM even on busy week days.
-
Prolly relates, but my bus driver decided to give us ASSIGNED seats and show up 10 minutes earlier to the bus stop now.
It's quite annoying running to the bus stop yelling "STOP STOP" when she didn't tell us about it the first time D:<
-
This sucks when this happens. X.x I remember one year they did that actually.
-
Guys! I took 10 buses today! (including 2 ferries)
-
my bus driver is new, and she is always late or way too early...
she's supposed to come at 6:17 Am but she came at 6:02 AM once and now she comes at somewhere between 6:25 tp 6:35
-
@turiqwalrus: That sucks. XD
@DJ: Wtf... I can't believe he sat there on his phone for 30 mins....
@Juju:O.O
@Public school buses: This is nothing new. They never seem to arrive at a consistent time. :(
*Edit* Merged similar topics.
-
O.O Wow I had the original topic?
No wonder the topic title changed because I didn't remember putting in Public Transit Rants...
-
over the past few years, bus prices here have quadrupled. i have a student pass thing, so it isn't as bad, but the service is still awful, with things breaking down all the time or showing up half an hour late.
-
Over here they don't increase that much, but in the '90s it was ridiculous how much they increased. In the mid 2000s they did too, but not as fast and they dropped again afterward. I think it went like this approximately for a 12 years or older person:
Early '90s - $2
1997 or 98 I think $2.10
1999 $2.25
2000 $2.50
2001 $2.75
2005-ish $2.85 (after hurricane Katrina gas price increase)
2006 $3.00
2007 $3.25
2008 $3.50 I think. Around those years there were actually two increases a year
2009 $3.60
2010 $3.00
Also around 2006 it went around $2 on weekends for anyone over 24 and $1 for those under that. The prices in the early 2000s were just freaking ridiculous. In Quebec City it was like $2 or something, then. Nowadays however it's around the same prices or cheaper as in other cities, though. Also since 2007 they renewed all their vehicles, so there are less delays due to stuff breaking. I remember we had vehicles dating back in the early '80s and even one from 1975 a few years ago.
I still hope they'll really improve the service in a few years though, especially for the bus going to the ferry during summer festivals, because it's annoying to not even be able to do anything past 10 PM for juju (or 9 PM if he comes at my home or nearby).
-
More stuff related to public transit, although in some cases I guess they can't really be blamed due to the circumstances lol:
-Lack of adequate public transit in my city for Quebec's summer festival, unlike the hot air balloon one in my city that will occur next month. I guess the city didn't want to pay for activities going on in different cities. On the other hand, the hot air balloon festival bus transit will be free. Still, for other stuff like the current festival, Juju is stuck calling a cab when coming back, costing him $35 every night X.x
-Having to wait one hour in line with 3000-5000 other people outside to get into a boat. But again they did a pretty good job actually and I guess it can't be helped with that many people arriving within less than an hour. Happened tonight to me X.x
-Having to wait an hour or more for a bus because there are several other thousands people waiting for one. But again it's much better than it used to be a few years ago. Now there are like 10-15 city buses waiting in line at the end of the shows to get people back home and new ones arrive every 10-15 minute.
-When a bus arrives too early and doesn't wait for the other one for transfers or stuff like that. Happened to juju recently x.x
-
This exactly. And yeah, for the last one I had to wait a hour for the next one. And it was the last one.
-
Lucky for the last one :). Yeah there is a disclaimer somewhere in the bus timetables of Gold Coast, Australia that there can be no guarantee for transfers. Such as taking the bus to train station and seeing the train leave as you run down to the platform. I'll pop some more stuff l8r.