Saturday 10 August 2013

Stand clear of the doors Gladys.......

......because Channel 10 is gunning for you. Well, maybe not the Minister personally but Channel 10 in Sydney seems to have an obsession with Sydney Rail - I think that is the current name - at the moment. Barely a day goes by without an exclusive report about some issue with the rail service and it's never a flattering report. We've had fare evasion, fares generally, the cleanliness of the service, delays, delays in delivery of new stock, new uniforms, safety...and on and on it goes.


Last night's exclusive was the new timetable due later this year - I think - which will slash or streamline services, depending on your interpretation, by cutting stops at certain stations.


Now this report was neither news nor exclusive as I have heard/read of these plans twice before in the previous six months or so, nevertheless the information was delivered with that breathless highhandedness beloved of some media types.

Each time and so again last night, Our Gladys replied with words to the effect that the new timetable is a work in progress and it will deliver 'better this' and 'improved that' and blah, blah, blah.

Gladys may be right but she better watch out or she'll find herself trapped on a runaway train by a persistent television Channel which remains firmly on the tracks to shock and scandal land.

4 comments:

  1. Public transit bashing was a regular sport, played mostly by politicians but also the local media, in San Francisco when I worked there. Matters were rarely improved, in fact they were often made worse, by the tireless work of the city council (called the Board of Supervisors) to trash the system they ran.

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  2. Is Ch 10 still Murdoch owned? If it is, ten going after your state government doesn't quite add up.

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    1. I think Lachlan Murdoch is still one of the owners Andrew.

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