Another monumental stuff-up - Nick Wade

Ok I’m going to start this week’s blog by asking a very simple question. Who among us actually expects NSW public transport to get us from point A to point B without dramas? Nobody, none at all? I didn’t think so, and so it doesn’t come as a shock that this week, you guessed it, RailCorp made yet another monumental stuff up at the expense of its unfortunate patrons. Just another classic case of a poor defenceless elderly couple and an underprivileged youth being mercilessly kidnapped and driven half way around the country against they’re will by the villainous corporate machine. Well…not exactly but as a young writer it’s sometimes hard not to embellish things a bit.

The truth is that because of some ingenious RailCorp regulation thought up somewhere by a man who made up for his lack of brain with an expensive suit, buses are not allowed to let passengers off anywhere but at a bus stop. How many bus stops were available for the bus in question between Newcastle and Brisbane? Not many is the regrettable answer to that question and so our unwilling travellers found themselves in quite the predicament. 10 hours of infuriating boredom later the weary travellers were released from their perpetual prison (excuse the dramatic embellishment once again) and allowed to taste the sweet air of freedom.

However the taste soon wore off as they again remembered they were in Brisbane and thanks to the generosity of RailCorp they now had to pay their own way home. Lucky for them its common knowledge that the media loves to harass Australian public transport and so after a story published in The Sydney Morning Herald a now humbled RailCorp offered compensation to the poor souls who were forced to endure the uncomfortable tediousness of public transport for a full day.

I for one believe that if we as a nation can glorify a man like Ned Kelly who challenged the corrupt system, these brave Aussie battlers deserve no less. In an age devoid of heroes who can sling guns and wear tins on their heads we need people like this who sacrifice (almost) as much as Ned Kelly in the fight against corporate villainy.