The Sydenham Dash

You can't have a real trip from Town Hall to Marrickville without it. It probably makes the trip even quicker than the direct train in the morning. Especially when the train gets stuck in the flying crossovers. Particularly when it avoids getting stuck by suddenly taking the City Circle via Museum...

Not catching the train

In mathematics, cancellation refers to methods of simplifying an equation or expression resulting in fewer terms. In commuting, cancellation may be applied by CityRail at any time, resulting in more congestion.

Catching the train

In mathematics, A and B commute if AB=BA. In commuting, the order does matter. The Town Hall train (that's the one via Town Hall, or is it the one with destination Town Hall?) is not the same as the Museum train (the one to Town Hall, or the one to Museum?)

Changing sides of the world makes a difference, too. Now I'm in Sydney, I no longer need a dog to carry on the escalators. However, I'm having trouble satisfying the request to keep hold of children while boarding the train. At least I am not asked to keep a firm grip on a pram unless it is mine and I am travelling with it.

Guns on stations or bombs on trains?

The announcement of London as the host city for the 2012 Olympics wasn't the only thing that happened nearly two years ago. The next day, four bombs went off on the city's public transport, killing 52 people. After the bombings were unsuccessfully imitated two weeks later, police armed with large guns were stationed at many railway stations, watching passengers enter and leave.

Yesterday, after the recent car-bombs in London and Glasgow, I saw heavily armed police again at one station. It probably says something strange about how my mind works, but I'm instinctively more disturbed, if not scared, by the visible guns than the thought of possible bombs. I wonder whether it would be any different if Jean Charles de Menezes hadn't been shot 2 days before I first saw them.

(I could offer 10 points for guessing which station I saw the police at, but there are already points on offer for naming that station.)

Trouble training

After the fatal derailment in Cumbria last Friday night, I expect the Virgin Trains people have better reasons to be worried about losing customers than damage caused by ticket stamp wielding train managers. More seriously, thank God that there were so few casualties in such a high-speed derailment. The driver of the London to Glasgow train, Iain Black, is being called a hero for staying in his seat and continuing to drive the train after it had left the rails, rather than trying to protect himself.

(Not the best photo I have, but it seemed the most appropriate. 10 points for naming the station this Virgin Voyager is at, and 10 more if you can guess where it was headed last Friday night.)

How many roads?

Last week on the train, the "train manager" managed to hit me in the head with her ticket-punchy-thing after checking my ticket. She really wasn't having a good day, as she also said we were in Milton Keynes when we were in Stockport, and told us we were arriving at London Euston instead of Manchester Piccadilly.

Of course, she was very, very apologetic, and seemed upset because she thought I wouldn't travel with them again again. I suppose I might avoid an airline if they had particualrly bad service and there were other flights I could take instead, but should I really take an extra hour or so and go via York to get to Manchester? Should I just avoid route 7, or all Virgin trains, and take the slow Silverlink service to get to Birmingham?

Not having a car or a driving licence, driving would be quite impractical, even if it weren't slower than the train. Walking might be enjoyable, but it would take a bit longer than I'd like. If I did walk, however, I'd like to find a nice route along canals, not walk down the middle of the road like the woman I saw this morning. I don't know what she thought she was doing, but she definitely didn't impress the drivers. Vehicles have enough trouble passing each other on that stretch, without trhowing pedestrians into the mix!