Canberra
I had the most fantastic nap this afternoon. I caught the bus from Canberra, and was asleep before we even left the city limits. When I woke, we were already at Liverpool. In preference to the train, or a car, or a plane, I really like the bus trip between Sydney and Canberra. Although it’s a little longer than driving, it’s faster than the train, and probably on a par with a plane, by the time you take into account getting to and from the airport at either end, as well as take-off and landing. And because I live near Central Station in Sydney, and generally stay in the centre of Canberra, it’s very, very convenient.
Add to that, you can have a nap, get some work done, watch a movie, and take in the sights of the Australian countryside. My two favourite parts of the journey are when, heading down from Sydney towards Goulburn, you enjoy the rolling declines of the Great Dividing Range, and closer to Canberra, you enjoy the vast landscape of the mysterious Lake George.
Though often derided as a clinical, sterile kinda place, I really like visiting Canberra. The population is awfully lucky in many ways, with (for the most part), good incomes and good facilities available to them. Though I usually try to visit a gallery or a museum or two, I didn’t have much spare time on this visit, focussed mostly on work.
Aside from attending the terrific Australian of the Year Awards, and being totally inspired by people who contribute a hell of a lot more to the country than I do, I “reverted to form” on this visit, visiting my favourite restaurant (around the corner from the hotel where I usually stay), and eating my favourite meal.
Bus faster than a train. How can that be. All so wrong.
As for your light rail/tram, it seems it has been built to specifications of a high speed train. Who made the decision to have it ridiculously over engineered? Was it an anti public transport person within government who made sure it was a disaster, and so no more will be built? There was no need to dig so deep in George Street and disturb services. There are significant issues with Canberra’s new light rail too. Why didn’t Canberra and Sydney seek advice from Melbourne about building tram lines? Or even the lesser countries of Europe. Gold Coast did it on their own and got it pretty well 100% right. Nevertheless, I expect when your new tram line opens, it will go off like a cracker and will be immediately overwhelmed with the number of passengers, is spite of it looking like a pretty slow service. Am I cross? Oh yes, about Sydney’s light rail.
Andrew, I’m in two minds about the light rail and lessons to be learned from elsewhere. I was in Latvia a few years ago, and it was awesome they had a tram system, but it was terribly, terribly old. So I think it’s important to build a modern system for modern times. That said, I agree, I think Sydney has looked backwards, with overhead lines etc. They could have looked towards more modern technologies. It’s history now, but abandoning the tram system of Sydney’s past may have offered a chance to move to something more modern. That doesn’t appear to have occurred.