Stupid Sign
Stupid Sign

You know how some people hate trains? They just can’t stand travelling on them. They think they’re dirty and smelly. That, or they hate the timetables, or they don’t go in the right direction. Or they fear for their safety after a certain hour at night. Well, I actually quite like trains. But there’s one thing about the Sydney train system that drives me wild. It’s the fact that Olympic Park remains the #1 choice on the ticket machines.

Since Olympic Park opened in the late 90s, I’d estimate I’ve been there about twenty times. I went to the Olympics and the Paralympics, I go every year for the Royal Easter Show, and I’ve been there for the odd concert. And for these major events is usually pretty fast by train. But aside from these major events, getting to Olympic Park by train is usually quite difficult. Mostly, you have to catch a couple of connecting trains, and even then you often have to sit and wait for up to half an hour for the connection.

So why is Olympic Park still the #1 choice on the ticket machines? Why isn’t it City Circle or something else? The number of times I’ve pressed Olympic Park instead of City Cricle alone would amount to thousands of dollars in lost productivity.

And why does Macdonaldtown get a higher billing than Redfern or Newtown? In all the time I’ve been in Sydney, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get off the train at Macdonaldtown.

It’s pure madness! Mr Iemma and Mr Watkins – please do something about this.

5 responses to “Cityrail Complaint”

  1. Graeme Avatar
    Graeme

    The destinations are how far you can go on a particular price level of ticket. So you can push that one and go to McDonaldtown but not Newtown as you’d have to pay more.

    The Olympic park thing would be for convenience for major sporting events when thousands are trying to buy tickets all at once. I also imagine reprogramming the machines would cost a lot of money.

  2. Denys Avatar

    Graeme is right about the ticket pricing. Macdonaldtown is the last station (heading west) before the price goes up. Lewisham is the next one listed on the machine because between Newtown and Lewisham it becomes a higher fare.

  3. cotton Avatar
    cotton

    Macdonaldtown is brilliant. don’t knock it!!

    Only one train in, though, every 20mins, even peak. the Inner West Line all-stops is useless.

    takes me AN HOUR to travel 3km every day.

  4. Victor Avatar

    And the odd thing is that for most major events at Olympic Park, train travel there is free. You don’t require a train ticket!

  5. Sam Avatar
    Sam

    I am very disappointed with the services of City Rail. They increased the prices of the weekly tickets and the slowest train services we are getting from City Circle to Bankstown and vice versa. Also, the trains are all stops and there is very limited express trains to city from Bankstown. It takes me more than 45 mins tro an hour max everyday. It’s not like the fast trains to Parramatta. Or the lines in Lidcombe to Bankstown there is always 30 minute wait. I am very disappointed about the condition of the trains that come to bankstown – there is no Air Condition, the chairs are ripped, the trains can be dirty and not regularly maintained with cleaniness or service. It is ridiculous that Cityrail is so smart to make more money by increasing the prices of the weekly tickets and no equal service worth paying Cityrail that extra dollars they are taking as there is no improvement in our area when it comes to services such as proper comfortable trains and express trains with at least 5 stops max to city from Bankstown. I wish Cityrail would be as efficient with the services they will provide as much as they are efficient to remembering to hit passengers with extra ticket fares to destination!

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  1. I’m so glad you have patience and a sense of humour. And I get the invisibility thing. The older I…

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