I cannot believe the price of a train ticket from Spencer Street to Warrnambool is $120!!!!!!!!! ($117 something, but close enough..) We have a visitor this weekend and he has just told me that's what the ticket cost. I am totally flabbergasted. (It's making me queeeeezy Tezza :lol: :lol: :lol: ) How on earth can people be encouraged to use public transport when it is (for some I'm sure) cost prohibitive? What about the people that need to travel to Melbourne for Doctor/hospital appointments? How could they afford it? I must be just SO out of touch I reckon, 'cos I just can't believe that price. With petrol prices they way they are we may have considered catching the train to Melb for the next birthday celebrations, but $240 for the two of us????? Then we'd have to catch more trains to get to where we need to get to, through all the three zones no doubt. What does everyone else think? Am I out of touch (with train fares...NOT reality all you smarty wombat bootses) or, is that a bit of a rip off??
Public transport's a ripoff Tully. We were really good up until recently. My husband was taking 2 hours to travel to work and 2 hours to travel home from work , including a 25 minute walk each leg, just so we didn't have to run 2 cars. He's been doing that for the last 2 years and very recently, we sat down and did our sums and found the the last 7 km of his journey which constituted the 'country fare' component, that is, not covered by the MET (or whatever the hell's it called nowadays) was costing him over $600 per year. This was charged over and above the normal public transport costs. My father in law's been offering us his car for some time as he's got a company vehicle and we've been knocking it back for various reasons, including environmental and ecconomical, but after this realisation, he's now driving to the point where the country fare kicks in. We've decided that we can't afford $600 per year for 7 km. So how's that for incentive. My car (4x4) runs on gas so it's cheap anyway and I usually only drive it a couple of times during the week. (and it's the family car on the weekend, although most weekends entail working around the property so we don't drive it anywhere anyway) Being quite iscolated, I prefer not to be without a car incase something happens. The car my FIL has loaned us is a 4 cyl so it's not too expensive to run either. We've been campagning to have the country fare abolished as far as Warburton (where the bus depot is) but I think many residents are trying for as far as East Warburton. Trying to get the polititians to acknowledge this problem when 'they' consider that we're metropolitan when it comes to medical services, but rural when it comes to public transport. There are many more discrepancies as to whether we're rural or metro, and it all comes down to how much they have to outlay to provide us with the services we're entitled to. There you go, you've got me on my bloody soap box again. :roll: Twice today's enough! Tam
The Brisbane to Gympie trip also cost a bit - I haven't been there for a couple of years so I forget how much. ($40-$70) The same trip cost $10 in petrol when I went by car. Share that four ways and you have the cost of a local bus ticket. Plus the hassle of waiting for hours 'cause there's only one train per day. I used to use trains a lot but they've become overpriced especially if you are travelling as a family. The reality of Oz is that a car is essential. I've lived in the Philippines 19 years without one and public transport there leaves Oz for dead. It's fast and cheap.
g'day widgeenut, they use the city trian for the gympie to brisbane run now so prices are along suburban lines my lovely says around $20 for a one way full adult fare. len
Thanks Len. My apologies. That's not as bad as I thought and ok for one person. I have chronic memory problems probably from anaesthetics and mercury fillings.
yes widgeenut, it is part of the sunshine coast timetable now, and if yo go to cooroy you can bus or train form there if bus it will take you to nambour for the train. len
I do not know about long distance prices but the inner-city transport in Brisbane is much cheaper than it was in GErmany. Yes, the German prices exlude many people from using public transport but I wish very hard to pay this high prices and having a suitable public transport!!! ( I do NOT think that this is a good policy - it should be affordable) The city-train is very slow and runs seldom. Buses are more than old, this would not be a problem, but you cannot enter with a stroller - the busdriver ask you to fold the stroller - but what about mothers who makes their shopping with the stoller?? The system is more then confusing hundreds of lines with servieces EVERY HOUR (!!!) which are quite similar. No metro, no street train etc...If you try to find the right bus in the city centre it's a misery. (The best thing about Brisbane's public tranport are the drivers - they could win the world champinship in friendlyness an helpfullness). For pedestrians it's worse and for cyclists its only dangerous because cars aare much too fast (because roads are twice as broadthan they should be) In the same time Brisbane plans some new bypass-tunnels for cars. Public transport and the pro-car policy is really the worst thing I can mention about austrlia!
Not much to add to this discussion , however... How is it that City folk can kick up a stink when there fares rise by say 30cents.. and the country fares are increased by 15 dollars ?? I live 3 hours from Melbourne, by Bus I believe it would cost me $100 return not to mention take 5 hours. To drive it in my VR commodore I can do it on a tank of fuel and do all the running about in Melbourne as well .. This is about $55.. And they talk of cutting country services >?????? What services do they privide now that they can take ? Anyway, sorry disgruntal country person here. :evil: PS, we don't have passenger trains as they were cut years ago...
but what to do? You're grumbeling about bad and expensive transport in rural areas. I grumble about the idea that everyone in a metropolitan area is forced to have and use a car. Things won't change like that, but how?
Hedwig mentioned the friendliness of the public transport employees which is true around here also. We're very lucky insofar as our bus drivers are 'top blokes'. It's not their fault that we're being ripped off by the country fare, in fact (and don't tell anyone) sometimes they tell us not to worry about paying it. Depends who's on the bus as 'big ears' could get them in a lot of trouble. After all, they're just doing their job, and they have bills to pay and a family to feed also. I don't really know who to blame other than saying, charging an extra $3 a day for an extra 7 km to get to and from work, on top of the normal fare, is a rip off, especially as many of the working class families living out our way are doing so because they can't afford the housing of the metro or suburban living. For us it's a lifestyle, but for many who live in the local housing estates, or the broncs as we privately refer to them, it's their own degree of poverty. And then they're slapped with the extra fare, just to get to work. On top of all that, buses don't run after 7pm weekdays many younger people working shift work in the factories and restaurants are seen HITCH HIKING their way to and from work, LATE IN THE EVENINGS! Tam
The train fare was one of the things that my partner and I had to factor into our budget when we were working out our finances for buying our home. We drive 20 minutes from our place to the station in Castlemaine and then I pay $670 for a 10 weekly ticket to get me to work in Melbourne every day. At $13.40 return per day I suppose it works out relatively cheap for me - I couldn't drive to Melbourne and back for that price... We also have 'top blokes' on our trains and buses (replacing trains as the fast rail single line is being installed because they forgot to measure the bridges and tunnels before buying the fat new trains...)
WOW , Castlemaine everyday to Melbourne... How long does that take you ? If it isn't long that is fantastic.. My Partner and I used to live in Sydney. I lived 7km from work and it took me 35min to drive there in the mornings (good conditions) and about 45min to get home. I now live 48km from work, and it takes about 30mins each way.. Sam (my partner) was living in Wollongong and working in Sydney and due to the train derailment that killed a few poor folk the train ride was just over 2 hours 1 way...
Public Transport Now Now people when will you realise that public transport means buses, trains etc for the 9-5 city worker who lives fairly close to the city. You seem to believe it should be for everyone and affordable so every one gets a fair go! Shame on you all. You even sound as if you think YOU are part of the public and should have equal access to the services to which you contribute via your taxes. Tut tut.
Hey there Baldcat, It takes about 2 hours and twenty minutes door to door...it is my great compromise - convenience for lifestyle (-: I live on 40 acres of bush in a solar passive little mud brick house on tank water, with a composting loo, an extensive grey water system, an orchard, lambs and (soon) chooks and a 1/4 acre vegetable garden gravity watered by our largest dam. We have visiting kangaroos and echidnas and lots and lots of bird life Working in Melbourne helps me to pay it off in the quickest time possible and I get to meet and be-friend locals on the travel in and back :lol: My partner is an artist and works from home and looks after the day to day running of the house and the lambs - 'tis the perfect set up for us at the moment I take it that your Sam was not involved in any of the accidents? That would have been very scary. Did the train travel slower after the derailment? I have lived closer to Melbourne before we bought - but always on farms on the outskirts and I often had less travel time on the country train than many of my inner city/suburban colleagues on the metropolitan transport system! Cheers, Fran.
hey fran (sorry if you don't like that) So jealous... I guess I could handle the travel, if there were some friendly folk doing it with me.. Would also be a good time to study, or catch up on some reading. The train ride from the Gong to Sydney increased about 40min from what I heard. Sam wasn't taking the trip when the accident happened. She started a few weeks later. What is the population of Castlemain ? it is a very pretty area. I used to drive home through there every now and then when I was at uni. It was either Western Hwy, or country drive.. Did you guys build your mud hut ?
Fran's fine :lol: Everyone calls me Fran. The added bonus (besides the people) of the extended travel time is that I complete any left over work and all stress has time to defuse so I never take any work home 8) I'm not too sure of the population of Castlemaine...over 5000. We are in a little biddy nearly town between Maldon and Newstead - 20 km west of the 'Maine. We didn't build - we were all geared up to build our own strawbale home - did a strawbale building course and everything...only to find this place and fall inlove The lady who we brought it from build it according to Permaculture principles and saved us about 6 years on our plan. We are very thankful. If anyone has old copies of Owner Builder magazine, our home is featured in issue 100 - with the lady that build it. I still have the building bug lurking in me somewhere and I am going to build a strawbale chook mansion - and put all that training to good use. Thinking of moving Baldcat? Cheers, Fran.
I'm always thinking of moving I have one of those bugs I guess, never really settled in the one spot.. The area you have gone to is a fantastic area, and that whole region I had forgot about when thinking of places to go.. I have ended up in Horsham, however I do not think this will be my ending point. I would really like to move into the Grampians a little more, and maybe a little further south say Pomonal (Between Ararat and Halls Gap) but due to Fuel prices, it has become a major player in where we decided to settle and have our kids... The main goal is to get some land settle and bred And bring the kids up with the joys of sustainability but in a modern kind of way.. "Still working on this" My employment is a key thing.. Presently I'm the IT manager for an Agricultural Equuipment Company ( https://www.emmetts.com.au - Shamless plug) And finding work in this field is difficult in country areas. Being within a 2 hour comute to Melbourne would not be so bad, and I could probably handle it.. As long as it was a Country rail service that dropped you straight at Spencer.. To get that service on this side of the state you would have to be near Ballararat. Anyway the search continues, as we are in no hurry... And I think of it like this .. The longer it takes to find a place that will allow us to explore permiculture and sustainablity, the more I will know about it Hopefully
What a great achievement story! All that success and still family owned and run - I am impressed I suffer from ichy feet and love being on the move but my partner does not - this was my 22 move since moving out of the family home (15 odd years ago) - Glenn was sick of moving me before we starting living together and we have only moved 3 times in the last 4 years which is some sort of record for me :wink: Castlemaine district is lovely, a great bunch of people, a really active arts community, good food, beautiful cars (hot rod capital of Australia), a balanced sense of history, picturesque, a Steiner School that people move into the area for their children to attend (so it must be good), great festivals...I should work for the Shire in promotions :!: :lol: ...and you'd get to travel with a great bunch on the train :wink: We looked at the Grampians area too - but found it just too far away from access to the city to make it viable for us. Another area we loved was Eldorado/Beechworth area. Therre are a lot of beautiful places in our lovely country - but if you ever want a tour of Castlemaine and surrounds let us know Cheers, Fran.
Eldorado/Beechworth , is where my partner is from .. Well Wodonga anyway, and have thought of that area. I have friends who live there (Beechworth), they love it, but have commented a few times that it is a little boring as there isn't many young people there. The Gramps are great, and I love them to death.. But you are right, they are isolated in terms of access.. The eastern Side of Bendigo would be nice, altough I have heard that water access there is very low (the drought conditions not helping) I was in the Army and have many times, (not including my uni days 1 house to the next ) Sam hates moving, as I like it becuase it is exciting and it is also a bit of a forced clean up as I horde things :?
