Download a late note for Sydney Public Transport
Anyone who catches public transport in Sydney whether it’s buses, ferries or trains know that the system is groaning under the pressure of the regular patronage. Not because Sydney is growing rapidly (although it is) but because the state government has refused to invest in bringing an ageing system up to scratch.
I personally have lost count of the number of times it has taken me an hour to get to work ( a whole 5 kms from home). Walking to the bus stop, waiting 20 minutes while dozens of buses pass through completely full and then sitting on the harbour bridge with literally hundreds of buses in front and behind mine. On to York street (the major inflow into Sydney from the north) and there is a sea of red lights and blue buses. Sometimes I imagine how long it takes for the poor people who have to travel on another 5 kms to get to Central Station. It must be at least another hour sometimes.
Unfortunately my boss doesn’t always see eye to eye with me on this issue and tells me to just leave for work earlier. Sometimes I suspect she thinks I just sleep in. But for me it’s either leave home after rush hour (2.5 of them) or before. I’ve left 30 minutes early for work and still gotten there only a couple of minutes earlier than normal.
Have you ever wished you could get a late note from the driver of your train or captain of your ferry? Just like the ones you used to get from your parents when you were running late for school. Well, I decided to make one. It looks official and is valid until whichever such point that the state government actually invests in Sydney’s public transport infrastructure.
Late Note for Sydney Public Transport
You can download the late note in PDF format. Let me know if there are any other formats you want. I guessed PDF would be the most cross platform compatible.
I’ll be out there handing them to people at my bus stop first thing in the morning and it’d be great if you could print off a few copies and do the same thing. Get someone to take some photos of you doing it and I’ll post them up. Hopefully we can get the message through to the state government that investment in public transport is an investment in Sydney.
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“But for me it’s either leave home after rush hour (2.5 of them) or before. I’ve left 30 minutes early for work and still gotten there only a couple of minutes earlier than normal.”
Spot on. If one’s boss is so retarded as to arbitrarily require staff to be at work at a fixed time that coincides with travelling during peak hour without a valid reason one should seek another employer.
Hold on, hold on. I wasn’t having a go at my boss at all. I was just mentioning we saw things differently. My beef is with Sydney public transport in general.
If you only live 5km from work, you should be able to walk it in an hour. It’ll always take about the same amount of time, and you’ll be healthier for it. Also, your boss is correct … it’s up to you to make sure you get to work on time. Leaving earlier will generally get you to work earlier, even if occasionally leaving thirty minutes earlier only nets you two minutes. Whiner.
The boss is half the problem though. Sydney public transport might be bad (and I’m certainly not excusing that) but the amount of time you spend wedged in peak hour traffic is also affected by the expectation that you should travel in peak hour so that you can turn up to work at 9am or whatever your start time is.
Whilst it may not appear to be a direct concern for a manager to consider how long their staff are spending travelling to & from work, the intelligent manager would recognise that every unnecessary minute his/her employees spends wedged in public transport is another minute s/he is losing on sleep, exercise and all the other non-work stuff that keeps humans happy & healthy.
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