Tuesday, October 05, 2004

All aboard

TP and I took advantage of our generous state government's offer and went train riding today - all for free. We visited the new station at Clarkson, which I must say looks pretty hoopy even though the male toilets were locked and 'won't be open until tomorrow' according to one of the guards. What if I can't hold it that long?

As fortune would have it, on our ride home we got to try out the new 'B-trains' which are due to come into service in the next few months. Whereas the old (current) trains have either 2 or 4 carriages the new ones have 3 or 6 thus giving them greater carrying capacity.

And, boy, do they move fast. We arrived back into Perth five minutes ahead of schedule, and this despite some teething problems which delayed us. I also got the feeling that the driver was being extremely cautious and not 'putting the pedal to the metal'. The ride is so smooth it barely feels like you're moving at all. I expect it to cut the trip up to Joondalup by about ten minutes once all the kinks have been ironed out.

All in all a great day.

1 comment:

ToxicPurity said...

Well, all Clarkson needed was some bunting and people giving away balloons to the kiddies, and it would have felt like a proper opening - it was that busy.

All these people milling around, admiring the beautiful station, the up and down escalators, the vast empty carpark... All these people standing outside the station squinting into the horizon, where the closest signs of civilization could be discerned (along with the faint promise of working public toilets)...

All these people turning around and going back to mill around on the platform waiting for their free ride back to civililisation...