QLD Transport, You've Done it Again!

Queensland is far from renowned for having excellent public transport services, and I am well aware of this. While this is understandable, having two serious power faults affecting major train lines during the morning peak hours happen twice in only two weeks is not excusable. One fortnight ago, the incident had such large scale implications that Premier Anna Bligh actually felt the need to give us all free public transportation the next day. Knowing the financially-unstable world that we live in, anything completely free has to either have some serious catch, or actually not be free at all, being hidden behind so many unforeseen costs that you wish it was never "free" anyway. Below is a table taken from the Brisbane Times' latest article on this topic. It outlines each individual train line in and around Brisbane, and uses a series of annoying red little exclamation points to explain to you that absolutely everything has something wrong going on.

For the second time in only two weeks, Queensland commuters are severely delayed by TransLink problems.

Image Source: Brisbane Times

Naturally, you're just expected to figure out alternative means of transportation. However, this obviously ignores that fact that, as there are no listed train lines at all that operational, "alternative" transport is limited to walking, bicycle riding, taking a taxi (you'll have to hope your pockets are lined with gold for that though) or catching a bus. Buses would be the better of these options, although the traffic that even just one train outage causes is bad enough. Having all of them down for the count, though? Here's hoping you're all cool with cruising in second gear, because you're not going to be getting any faster for this trip. 

Coincidentally, this second public transport malfunction occurred on Ride to Work Day; a day advertised primarily over the radio to encourage commuters to strap on a helmet and get on a bicycle to get to work. In theory, this is a good idea. However, riding to work only once a year is hardly a way of getting fit. If anything, it's a good way of blatantly pointing out to you just how unfit you are, which may or may not be a very pleasant thing to realise. Acting Mayor of the Gold Coast Daphne McDonald claimed that "we should get on our bikes, because it is a very healthy exercise, it's inexpensive and it reduces any traffic congestion in the city." Clearly, she got that last part wrong. If ever there was a day where there were this many drivers frustratedly checking their watches as they pulled to a complete halt behind another car for the seventh time that morning, it was... only two weeks ago, actually. This really just goes to show how poor Queensland Transport is. 

Today's circumstances admittedly resulted in slightly less serious complications than the previous fortnight's complete closure of the Richlands train line and extended delays for the Ipswich-Caboolture lines, however reports have confirmed that an unfortunately substantial number of Queensland residents were again forced to be late to their respective workplaces and/or educational institutions. This is completely unacceptable. Not everybody's boss will respond to your being late twice in two weeks with a smile and cup of coffee, and in the off chance that your boss actually does respond in this way, you're one lucky work-a-day Queenslander.