Friday, March 03, 2006

Open to interpretation

Railfares in NSW are set to increase even though the Government has previously said that until services are improved, there will be a price moratorium. The letters and comments in MX suggest that services are far from improved but still the State Government forges ahead - possibly helped by a story in this morning's The Daily Telegraph saying that 90,000 more passengers a week are using city trains since the introduction of new timetables last September . Transport Minister John Watkins said the figures were an indication that commuter confidence in the troubled rail system was returning.
I read this to mean "they're using it, so it must be better" although I wonder if they really meant "this happily coincided with very substantial petrol price rises meaning people couldn't afford to drive their own cars to work and were forced to use trains - and the extra people are just making the train riding experience more cramped and less comfortable for everyone - but let's not mention that".

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