Attitude towards delays
 

Maybe Irish people are too willing to just put up with the poor punctuality on Iarnrod Eireann trains. Passengers in some other countries have a slightly more forceful attitude.

From today's Irish Times report on electricity shortages in South Africa:
"Angry commuters torched trains at four stations after being kept waiting for two hours due to a power cut"

:eek:

Not a very practical idea if you want to travel later

Heh. The result looks like the old orange paint scheme of IE

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=688647
http://www.sabcnews.com/south_africa...162871,00.html

Their approach to the delay is reminiscent of IE: "Metrorail, in responding to the attack on the trains by angry commuters who burnt six Metrorail trains in Pretoria after power cuts delayed trains for more than two hours, said they were under no obligation to provide alternative transport."

That's interesting, the Irish Times article was all about power cuts due to lack of capacity, whereas it was actually the result of a storm.

Heh, you're right, the pic in the second link looks like they're in the middle of repainting from the CIE orange to the new green.

South Africa
 

South Africa is actually having systematic power cuts at the moment. We have a number of offices there and they have explained that over the last week or more the power grid has been switched off (or supply has been significantly lowered) for period of hours on end as the national grid tries to 'share out' the available power. Our offices have UPS facilities, but once they have been exhausted then the lights go out, the computers shut down and everyone just has to go home. The problem is 'grid wide' and not just related to a single transformer in a single location. To be honest it sounds like their infrastructure is going down the tubes. Can you imagine if Ireland was subject to random power outages like that for weeks at a time ?

z

1980's man

They've cut off supplies to Zambia and Zimbabwe.

ESB International have just secured a contract in SA to advise on how they can improve their grid and in time for the FIFA World Cup. Its amazing how a country like it is building new stadia while basic needs and infrastructure are in a very poor condition.

My brother in law is a white south african. He claims that white south africans don't use public transport because it is frequented by predominantly black people (they'd be native south african:D ) from poor backgrounds and with very questionable social and behavourial attitudes. Off course when he told me this, I was thinking that it may be a typical racist comment from a white south african pissed off that the country has turned back to its rightful inhabitants. But my sister lived there for 2 years, so I asked her. She confirmed that it was true and said a late night DART through Kilbarrack and Howth junction would be like mass in comparison.

Without wanting to diverge too far, but much of South Africa's problems have been class based. Rich whites look down on middle class whites, just as much as they look down at blacks.

You have diverged too far, so feck off back to another thread and curse your brains out about metro architecture.:D

:(

I'd say just burn down Irish Rail

Well Broombridge smelt extra special today.

Last week man!

Large part of Louth was blacked out. Basically everything in my area, Clogher Head out past Dunleer.

Thank god i had my portable dvd player, a working aga, an open fireplace and lots of candles!

It went out at 5 and was still off when i went to be at aroun 1030. The alarm went off a couple of times due to brief power spikes where they tried to restor the power but it failed. I guess its all the construction in Drogheda or something. But i used to hear other areas around Navan got it a lot, and even brown outs in water supply:eek:

we had a big power cut here a few weeks ago, but mark is right, twas bad in the 70's and 80's - strikes and the grid collapsing if it was a tuesday all that malarkey

This is the queue for tickets, never mind the queue for the train. http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...g_getty416.jpg "Millions of people in China are making their way home after the New Year holiday, including these people queuing to buy train tickets at Caiyuanba station in Chongqing municipality."

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7242742.stm

wrong thread shurely.... dont show gm101 that pic ;)