Musings on trains
I do a lot of sitting about on trains; I would catch about 16 or 20 different ones over the course of a week commuting back and forth from work to home. I'm not a train enthusiast in the league of some friends here, but I would consider myself an interested passenger. I like to know precisely where each carriage is going to stop relative to the platform at the destination, so that I can occupy one which will give me the speediest access to the exits.
For example, my usual stop of Melbourne Central has just been renovated to buggery, and my previous trick, of alighting from the back of the penultimate carriage closest to the long Swanston Street escalators, no longer gives the speediest escape from the maze of corridors that now passes for the station exit. The best position is now the middle or back of the third carriage from the front (half way to the Elizabeth Street end!). I know the sequence of red lights leading up to the station within the loop, so I'm usually first at the door, and then within the first batch of people to reach the escalators. Being fairly lithe I normally bound up the escalators two steps at a time. I've then discovered that once you get through the ticket validators, there's a quick escape route out onto Latrobe Street if you go up the next set of escalators and then head off to the right. I can then quickly march up to the corner and catch a tram; today I'd been sitting on the tram a minute or more by the time I recognised fellow passengers from the train emerging from the maze.
As for going back home, Doctor Who is on just after 6 pm from Monday to Thursday, so for the last couple of months I've been trying to ensure I get home in time, but sometimes have cut things rather fine. I'll change trains multiple times to get the fastest connection to Camberwell: if I miss the Alamein train that leaves Camberwell just after 5.30, then the next one often delivers me to my station with only a few minutes before the angelus hour. In this event I position myself at the back of the very last carriage, and as soon as the train stops, I get out and move a few metres behind the end, jump down onto the tracks and across onto the reserve. If I run home I usually have a chance of catching the beginning, and have saved a minute or so by not exiting the station conventionally :-)
For example, my usual stop of Melbourne Central has just been renovated to buggery, and my previous trick, of alighting from the back of the penultimate carriage closest to the long Swanston Street escalators, no longer gives the speediest escape from the maze of corridors that now passes for the station exit. The best position is now the middle or back of the third carriage from the front (half way to the Elizabeth Street end!). I know the sequence of red lights leading up to the station within the loop, so I'm usually first at the door, and then within the first batch of people to reach the escalators. Being fairly lithe I normally bound up the escalators two steps at a time. I've then discovered that once you get through the ticket validators, there's a quick escape route out onto Latrobe Street if you go up the next set of escalators and then head off to the right. I can then quickly march up to the corner and catch a tram; today I'd been sitting on the tram a minute or more by the time I recognised fellow passengers from the train emerging from the maze.
As for going back home, Doctor Who is on just after 6 pm from Monday to Thursday, so for the last couple of months I've been trying to ensure I get home in time, but sometimes have cut things rather fine. I'll change trains multiple times to get the fastest connection to Camberwell: if I miss the Alamein train that leaves Camberwell just after 5.30, then the next one often delivers me to my station with only a few minutes before the angelus hour. In this event I position myself at the back of the very last carriage, and as soon as the train stops, I get out and move a few metres behind the end, jump down onto the tracks and across onto the reserve. If I run home I usually have a chance of catching the beginning, and have saved a minute or so by not exiting the station conventionally :-)