Total Failure
Sydney has once again suffered a third world service from City Rail. The North Shore line was halted due to the failure of overhead power lines on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Three trains were stranded mid track, in fact two were within tunnels. The passengers were subjected to stifling conditions on these stricken trains as without power there is no air conditioning.
Perhaps, worse than that reports from affected passengers indicate that the on train staff were uncooperative, not informative and arrogant. Reportedly announcements were to the extent of “We do not know what is going on and the doors will not be opened”. Rest assured the guards compartment at a minimum would have been wide open. Now whilst I agree that opening the doors may not be wise in most situations, when passengers are for all intent and purposes imprisoned for hours on end, surely the doors should be opened to allow air flow.
I feel sorry for the passengers that have had to suffer yet another City Rail failure. I can only imagine the terrible conditions these people were subjected to aboard a crowded peak hour train for hours without any air movement. I have trouble on a 30-40 minute trip on the the shame of the fleet, the Craptaculars, which at least offers minimal relief via the windows.
The train services were eventually replaced by buses. As we know a bus is considerably smaller than a train carriage in capacity, and I have it directly from an affected passenger that it was almost impossible to get on. It took that City Rail client 3 hours to get home, and that included them walking across the bridge as it was more efficient than waiting for a bus.
Shame City Rail, shame!
