Park and Ride

Or possibly not.   I thought I'd use public transport today.  Way of the future apparently.  So I go along to the "Park and Ride" at Bull Creek Station.  About noon and it is completely full.  Totally full.  People parked on the kerbs, verges and in the drop off only bays.  Luckily there is a nice man there to help you. "It's full" he says.  He informs me that it's always full, you can never park after 8 am.  What exactly is the point of spending spending over $2,000,000,000 (count 'em, that's nine noughts) on a train if you still end up driving into Perth anyway.

Actually you can't drive into Perth as the car park at the station is designed so that when you leave, after not being able to park, you can't actually get back on the freeway north.  Brilliant.  You have to drive towards Willetton and then do a highly illegal u-turn at the lights down the road then drive back towards the station and get on the freeway.

Bus and train then I suppose.  This requires a certain mastery of the dark arts to try and find out which bus you need to catch as none of the bus stops have timetables on them.  Luckily there is always an old lady at any bus stop who can say "Ohh it's the 509 you need.  It doesn't stop here, you need the stop 800 metres down the road".  

So off I go and spend a delightful 20 minutes sitting in a concrete bus shelter with the slightly dribbly asian gentleman.  Finally the bus arrives and I get treated like a moron by the driver for having to ask how the Smartrider card works.  Do I "tag on" now and "tag off" in the City or do you "tag on" now, "tag off" at the station, back "on" at the station then "off" in the City.  I mean how are you meant to know these things unless you've been forced to suffer public transport before?  It the second option by the way.

Coming back was not so bad.  Having got myself a bus timetable I knew which train to catch to connect with the bus.  Again you need the psychic skills to find which platform you need to go to.  Transperth seems to think everyone knows the name of the last station on the line and that this indicates the intermediate stops too.  So I get the train and it connects perfectly with the bus.  Fantastic.  I get off the bus and discover the little thing that no one ever talks about when they are plugging public transport.  The bus doesn't take you to your house.  The last 800 metres have to be covered on foot in the pissing rain.  What fun!  

Anyone want a slightly used Smartrider card?