Tale of a traveller to our fair City...

[Otto]

True Story, Happened on Friday..

I was doing a 301 from Cultural Centre to Toombul late Friday night. I passed Doomben Station and turned back to Nudgee rd. First stop in Nudgee Rd, I picked up a Pax and proceeded to Toombul. Had a chat with Pax and here is his story previous to boarding my service.

He had earlier boarded a plane in Darwin to fly to Bris. Due to arrive at 7pm.. ( 1st problem ) As it turns out, the flight was delayed leaving Darwin. After waiting, He was soon on his way to Bris and on approaching BNE airport, the plane proceeded to circle the airport. ( 2nd problem ) Pilot apologised and said they had to wait for clearance to land.. After 2 circuits of the City, the plane landed safely..
The guy then made his way to the Airtrain to make his way into Bris City to then find a way to Chandler Sports Complex.
( 3rd problem ) He arrived at the platform at 9:10pm, only to find the last train left at 9pm. He asked station staff how he could get to Chandler at was told to get a Taxi. He still was none the wiser as to the location of Chandler.
He then got a cab and went on his way.. He had asked for the nearest Train station where he could get a train to the City.. ( 4th problem ) The Cab driver dropped him off at Doomben Station and was told he could get a Train to the City from there...
So he went to the platform to see how long he needed to wait for the next train. ( yes, you guessed it... 5th problem ) With horror, he saw the last train left a few hours ago and the poor guy was totally disorientated.. He walked along to Nudgee rd and found a bus stop..

Hence, this is where I come in to the story.

(6th problem ) He boarded and produced a GoCard and touched on... BEEP BEEP BEEP !!! No Credit.... As it was late, I just asked him to take a seat and not worry about his card.. We started chatting and I found out about the trouble the poor guy had already had.. So he then found out he was travelling in the wrong direction !!! I said to him that he may as well stay onboard as I was the next inbound service from Toombul.
At Toombul, I said to him that he may want to try topping up his GoCard at the AVVM that I parked beside.. So he used EFTPOS to top up.. Now, I learn't something here that I was not sure about. We had been told that EFTPOS topups at AVVMs should work on buses straight away.. Well, that was not the case.. I did a balance check on his card and it was still negative... ( I was not happy with the cubic system at this point )..
Anyway, the only bit of luck this guy had was that myself being a Redlands boy, could give him the info he needed to get to Chandler..
So he travelled back with me to the Cultural Centre and I pointed out the time and route (250) from the CC to Chandler.. I only hope his time here has some positives happening !!... How would you feel ?

[Jonno]

I would send this to our new Transport Minister to highlight the basket case she has inherited!

[somebody]

Had the flight arrived on time and the traveler caught the Airtrain into the city, it is entirely implausible that he would have been able to work out that he needed the 250 or where he could get it from.

[Golliwog]

Had the flight arrived on time and the traveler caught the Airtrain into the city, it is entirely implausible that he would have been able to work out that he needed the 250 or where he could get it from.

Its called the Translink Website. You wouldn't turn up to Melbourne on a plane and just expect to find the right route to get to wherever it is exactly you want to get. And before someone says something about car drivers can, no they can't. The last time I went to Melbourne was when I was in primary school and I remember absolutely nothing about the layout of the town so if I wanted to get to say St Kilda, I wouldn't be able to just hire a car from the airport and drive expecting to find it. I would have to look at a map before hand, or have a GPS in the car.

[somebody]

Had the flight arrived on time and the traveler caught the Airtrain into the city, it is entirely implausible that he would have been able to work out that he needed the 250 or where he could get it from.

Its called the Translink Website. You wouldn't turn up to Melbourne on a plane and just expect to find the right route to get to wherever it is exactly you want to get. And before someone says something about car drivers can, no they can't. The last time I went to Melbourne was when I was in primary school and I remember absolutely nothing about the layout of the town so if I wanted to get to say St Kilda, I wouldn't be able to just hire a car from the airport and drive expecting to find it. I would have to look at a map before hand, or have a GPS in the car.

Yes, well even that isn't always entirely helpful.  To find Adelaide St stop 16, for example, the only way to know exactly where it is to cross reference the stop number with the Brisbane City bus stop map.  It shouldn't be that hard.

But I would argue that the system should cater for ad hoc or unexpected trips.  It really doesn't do that well at all.

[Otto]

TL need to get a better Journey Planner..

I have been using this one,

http://jp.metlinkmelbourne.com.au/metlink/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en

to organise my travel in Victoria.. Works for the whole state, not just Melb and surrounds..