Not Friday though.
Assuming the city will be a ghost town nonetheless.
Good time to be an Uber driver.
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Strike is off, trains running as normal this Friday and Saturday.
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Glad that the strike is off as I do understand the inconvenience of not having a transport option available.
I do think the hysteria around the strike was over the top though. Itâs not like there arenât other options available. Buses, ferries, light rail, metro(?), taxiâs and ride shares were all available still and thereâs also the option of driving yourself/carpooling.
Maybe itâs time to spare a though for all of those towns with substandard or no public transport altogether.
If you need to get to Lismore from Kyogle for a medical, Centrelink or Service NSW appointment thereâs one bus per day. It leaves at 9.10am, arriving at 10.15am and returns at 2.00pm, arriving at 3.05pm.
There is no weekend service and there is no taxi service. If there was though then youâre looking at over $200 for a return trip (itâs 45km one way).
A taxi ride in a country area of New South Wales, like Lismore, can cost a maximum of:
- Hire charge: $4.10
- Distance rate: $2.36 per kilometer for the first 12 kilometers, then $3.23 per kilometer after that
- Night distance rate: $2.81 per kilometer for the first 12 kilometers, then $3.85 per kilometer after that from 10 PMâ6 AM
- Holiday distance rate: $2.81 per kilometer for the first 12 kilometers, then $3.85 per kilometer after that from 6 AMâ10 PM on Sundays and public holidays
- Waiting time: $57.65 per hour (96c per minute) while the vehicle is traveling less than 26 kilometers per hour
- Cleaning fee: Up to $120 if the taxi is dirty
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Yeah, but who lives in Kyogle âŠ
My name is Surge & Iâll be your driver today.
Theyâve decided to give the relationship another go for the sake of the commuters. For two weeks.
Iâm baffled by this 24 hour train bullshit, I know the idiots wanted drivers on the driverless Sydney Metro trains for some reason however is this 24 hour thing some sort of way of "redeployingâ drivers who are in danger of losing their jobs especially with the upcoming Bankstown Metro Line completion in about a year?
I mean the constant maintenace on the train lines over the past few years every single fucking weekend is for a reason Iâm assuming however if some sort of long game by the unions to get trains running overnight on weekends then at what point is this âessential maintenanceâ going to occur? A decision was made not to do it overnight due to residential noise considerations initially so what now?
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I assumed it was because they had ridiculous overtime rates and it meant they had to staff all the stations too etc - massive fuck around for the govt rather than turning the lights off for four hours.
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4000 (and increasing) people, not taking into account the couple of thousand more who live in outlying villages, who pay the same tax as you but have far less Government services.
Itâs laughable how put out people were going to be because they couldnât catch a train while there are multiple other modes of transport still available. If itâs acceptable for one part of the community to have to adapt and find alternative solutions every then why is it such a problem when others have to do the same for a couple of days?
Billions have been spent on transport infrastructure in Sydney over the last 25 years, missing one element for a couple of days really shouldnât be such a big deal.
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Sydney Trains running 8-car trains have a reliable capacity of 1200 in normal service, and up to around 1800 for limited/special event services to Homebush but if they are packed in like that they become too unreliable to run in normal service. Sydney Metro trains on the current line are running 6-car sets that have capacity for 1100 but they can be extended to 8-car sets in future for a capacity around 1450, and the new Metro West line might have slightly higher capacity than that again as they will be longer with more doors and likely more oriented around standees.
This. I was 100% behind them last time there was industrial action over the new trains, which they claimed were unsafe and needed to have cameras and visibility etc improved (at a cost the Govt was baulking at, but that shit should have been addressed way earlier in the process).
This time itâs just a cash grab. They want their 30%+ pay rise and if theyâre not getting it they want their 24h overtime instead. Track maintenance be damned. They can absolutely GGF this time.
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Lol really? There are minimal or no bus services set to run where there are trains, unless youâre in the inner west. Because there are trains. Ferries? Well if you live and work next to the harbour maybe. But chances are youâre already on the ferry. Light rail? Sure, if you live next to the light rail. Metro down. So for the majority of Sydney where that doesnât work, then they really donât have an option. So they drive. In Sydney. Where peak hour traffic is already stuffed. So sure, IF you have a car around and spare, you can give it a go. Itâll just take for ever because youâre adding literally tens of thousands of cars to an already overloaded road network. Or sure, taxi or rideshare if you want to pay $100++ from the burbs. Its why when in peakhour a signal goes down in Burwood or Milsons point and the whole city grinds to a halt.
The reason billions are spent on mass transport in Sydney is because you canât have everyone driving. Sydney is not Kyogle. The weekend is not the problem, people will be fine. The problem was the weekday.
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Donât forget the reduction in hours to go with their pay rise!
Yoi all work from home anyway and kicked up a massive stink when asked to go back to the office.
You were told to work from home when the strike was announced.
You get toll relief to drive on roads paid for by the taxpayer who doesnât drive on them.
You have tunnels dug throughout the city to save minutes while we have a ferry service shut down that adds 45 minutes to a journey meanwhile a new ferry service is added across the Hawkesbury.
Give me a fucking break if you think that the transport infrastructure and Government services in Sydney are in any way unfavourably comparable to that in a country town.
Get a cab to a bus stop. Get a cab to the light rail. Get a cab to the ferry. Ride a fucking bike if you only have a couple of kmâs to travel.
As for the traffic argument, Iâm still driving on flood damaged roads from almost 3 years ago. I add extra time to my travel time. How about you do the same if thereâs extra traffic expected?
Is it ideal? Of course not but why canât you adjust your routine for a short period when you expect the rest of us to, long term?
But you cant nurse or teach or fight fires or run a shop or cut hair or work in a factory from home. Some people get toll relief to drive on toll roads put in as an alternative to decent public transport. Many donât. Said tolls are ridiculously high due to the governmentâs approach to private infrastructure, rather than for the benefit of the population. Which is exactly why people wanted to work from home.
Just like some people are getting flood buybacks on their house despite building in a flood prone area. Thatâs the point of government taxes, spent where there is most need, you donât always get it back dollar for dollar.
And more should be done to repair the roads up there. Itâs not an either or. But look at money spent for usage. Thereâs a lot of money spent on long roads with low usage. And thatâs not to say itâs a bad thing. City vs country will always be different, pros and cons. City will always have more infrastructure because you get economies of scale, but will have downsides such as shit commutes.
Just because the northern Rivers have been a bit neglected, doesnât mean itâs ok for literally hundreds of thousands of people to have a shit day. I havenât heard many people from Sydney say that money shouldnât be spent up there, or suck it up, you live on a river?
I think the whole thing is (or would have been) ridiculous because it is completely avoidable. Itâs a small group of public servants cracking the shits and inconveniencing a whole city.
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I reckon you fell for Union talking points hook, line & sinker regarding the New InterCity Fleet action!
The new InterCity trains were cleared and given a safe operations certificate by the national rail safety regulator ONRSR; there was no deeper issue with the cameras that couldn*t have been fixed with adjustments. The problem for Union bosses was that if those trains had gone into operation with the cameras, that would have spelled the end of guards, because in their design format they enabled driver-only operation (just like Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide have) and the plan was for guards to circulate through the train checking tickets ensuring safety.
The reason the Union kicked up a stink after initially going along with the plan was because, as you sort-of started to explain but then stopped a step or two short of the end product: the Union knew they could press the Government into giving them a more favourable deal if they went along to the point of no return then stomped their feet and making politically & financially costly actions (and to be clear I am no fan of the previous LNP government). The retrofitted changes the Union forced on Transport NSW after the train build are themselves a source of further problems since, as they were designed to operate a certain way and the changes arenât easy to retrofit smoothly, hence we are still waiting on them 5 years later.
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Not Sydney really, but overnight Sirens nightclub at Terrigal burned down.
A moments silence for the STD factory.
Insurance or bikies?
#whynotboth
Pauls @ Sylvaniaâs. Classic Aussie hamburgers are still the best hamburgers.
I am so stuffed right now.
I donât mind a decent burger but Iâm going to guess (and surely hope) it tastes a lot better than it looks!