Faceback: Train Delays

Two years ago, I wrote this on a facebook wall that no longer exists.

There’s track work going on between Wollongong and Waterfall, which is imposing limits on my ability to get to and from the warehouse for work. The replacement bus service doesn’t match up with the existing bus service properly, meaning that I’m spending 100+ minutes to travel between locations that are 20 minutes apart by car. Slightly frustrating, right? Today, in the tea room, I watched as an industrial coal train, one of the few trains that’s allowed to continued operating, made its way from north down to the steelworks near my house. Because of the track work, they have to operate at a lower speed – because there are people on the tracks and to reduce the metal stress on the rails. This train was moving at about 20 kilometers an hour. When you’re talking about a 40+ carriage coal train, you really notice the speed difference – and you imagine the driver sitting in his carriage with his face in his hands going nuts. That’s when it gets easy to stop feeling bad about having to spend long stretches of time on the bus.