As most of you know, I work in the city. And I don't mind the daily train trip in and out, going from Newmarket inbound on the Craigieburn Line, to Flagstaff Station on the Underground Loop in the morning, and then out the same way in the afternoon.
I leave work at around 5pm, which puts me on time for the 5:14 to Craigieburn. And if the 5:14 is too jam-packed to get on, which happens around once a week, the 5:22 is usually okay. But not always. Sometimes the 5:22 is just as crowded and then I'm stuffed. Because the next two Craigieburn trains run express between Kensington and Moonee Ponds, which means Newmarket is by-passed so those trains are effectively no good to me.
And it shits me. There must be a solution... wait! I think I've got it!Craigieburn trains are interspersed with Sydenham and Upfield Line trains, all of which stop at North Melbourne. So if I get on a Sydenham or Upfield train arriving at Flagstaff before the next Crigieburn train, I can get out at North Melbourne and walk up and then down the ramps to the Craigieburn Line platform. Even if that train is jam-packed, there are stacks of people who disembark at North Melbourne to hook up with Williamstown and Werribee Line Trains. So no matter how chocka that Craigieburn line train was to begin with, I can always get on at North Melbourne.
I never have to miss a train home again! Ever!
Period of daily train travel taken to arrive at this stunningly simple course of action? 2.25 years.
Draw your own conclusions. But I'm on the verge of working out where babies come from too.
12 comments:
You always need to think of alternatives with train travel. I am not so familiar with western side trains. Why do Willie Town and Werribee passengers travel to North Melbourne to catch their train there?
That arty tracks photo is terrific ... and ... arty.
Those of us who have travelled frequently from Ballarat to Melbourne by Vline, have figured out, eventually, that when needing to change at SoCross for a suburban line, it is easier to disboard at North Melb, than to arrive with wheelie bag at the Far South end of some mile-long platform, then negotiate changing levels, stairs, lifts, escalators, barriers n'shit while hate-hate-hating the architects.
It took me far too long to figure thatout too.
Happy trails from me.
PS check dailymailonline.uk for Jerry Hall juice on Ferry, B and Jagger, M. funstuff. Ferry hated her leg-wrestling talent, but Mick thought it was hilarious (Carla Bruni's Italian leg wrestling must have been better though)
Andrew: I can't believe it took me so long to work it out. I kinda pride myself on always finding the best possible route home. There goes that delusion.
I think the Werribee and Williamstown trains go from Southern Cross to Nth Melbourne to bypass the Loop on their way out. Daniel Bowen did a post on it and explained how it was better with maps and diagrams.
I'm not about to knock the time it takes you to figure something out, Mr Litter: I still can't remember which direction to turn the key in our front door after two years!
Thanks for reminding me why I drive (also because therea are no trains where we are, except for very long ones carrying 7000 tonnes of coal.
Also concur with Kath about locks. I've figured out the front door - two locks, keyed alike, turn in opposite directions) but the car always foils me. Maybe I should take the train.
Kath:
It's especially infuriating because I kind of pride myself on working out the best way home fairly quickly - like when you're a little kid and you don't go past the house where the vicious dog growls at passers by or along the street where the mean kid lives.
Phil:
I get to drive in now and then and it's a luxury of sorts.
When you figure out the baby thing, let me know.
gosh when I saw your sub-heading in my subscriptions list
I thought this was about Mary Of MacKillop taking Metrorail to the Vatican to get shot out of a canon ...
You've had a makeover!! Oh, I know you wrote sometime about trains and train times, but that's not important right now - you've got a new look blog!
JM:
Welcome aboard the Snoresville Express, Janice! Thanks for stopping by. I think I might be onto something about where babies come from: there's this cabbage patch not far from where I live, y'see, and...
FGM:
Nope, nothing Catholic about this blog. Just say three Hail Marys and an Act of Contrition and we'll call it square.
Blakkat:
Thanks for the compliment and great to see you out and about again. The new look is really just the blog equivalent of botox
... oh yes, The makeover. well-spotted Blakkat.
"A seachange* into something rich and strange" but still with Brian Jones.
*Did people actually go to the beach in Shakespeare's time?
FGMS:
Maybe not in Shakespeare's time but they certainly did the day of the Redlands drug bust. George and Pattie were tired and went home just before the Surrey police knocked on the door.
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