One giant leap for Cityrail

So Cityrail, Sydney's struggling transport service, has been having a shit of a time. Earlier this month, two separate fatalities brought chaos to the system, then on Wednesday a faulty part brought a train to a standstill on the Harbour Bridge affecting a number of trains to the north (including mine at St Leonard's - as you may recall, St Leo's and I go way back). May I also note that, ordinarily, I don't go into the city after work, so why o why did I have to go to writers group on Wednesday? I ended up spending $10 on a taxi, splitting it with some random strangers I found by the side of the Pacific Highway.

Anyway, so a test for the system. Today the Bridge was closed to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The only way you could get from one side of the bridge to the other (other than walking) was by train. After successfully completing our walk, Beq, Sir and I sat down for a well-deserved laksa at Market City. At 2:30pm, I get a call from my sister who has come up from Canberra for the weekend to visit a friend. She was in Chatswood and wanted to know what bus to catch to the city. Me: "Chatswood? Why don't you just catch a train?" Her: "There's been a fatality at North Sydney and the trains are delayed. I have to catch the coach to Canberra at 3pm." Me: "You're not going to make it. There are no buses going across the bridge. Train is the only way."

Sound the alarm! We put our trust in the rail and it failed us. What to do? State elections are next week and there's no one to vote for. Tis a sad state of affairs. And what's the trend with people dying on the tracks? Are they throwing themselves off or are they accidents? Why the lack of details? We get told gory details about shootings all the time, why not rail fatalities? After all, if we're going to put up with the delays, we may as well know the whole story so we can sympathise.

Okay, enough death talk. Here's a pic of three people who are very much alive:

(The Iron Maiden) Beq, Sir and I at the start of the 75th anniversary walk

Not much to add to last week. Still busy on the same things. I've started writing a film unit on 'Pleasantville' at work and have developed a new respect for Tobey Maguire (I mean, he was good in 'Spider Man', 'Seabiscuit' and 'Wonder Boys' and he always seems to play nerds). I spent a helluva lotta money this weekend as well - pretty much all of it on food and drink. This week it is back to living in poverty as I save for a possible trip to Melbourne in May. Til then, stay away from Sydney trains.