I’ve been using the public transport system up here in Sydney (not that I don’t back in Canberra) and I’ve noticed a few things that sort of jumped out at me as something I have not experienced before. Although I used to live in Sydney, and have for several years before moving south, I supposed I never really had a taste of the transport system…
Anyway, so first thing is first, people are no where near as friendly as they are down in Canberra. I suppose if I was peckish I could extend that beyond the public transport folks to generally most people in the streets. I’ve been squashed, bowled over, shoved out of the way and so forth while lining up to get a ticket or hop on a bus. Next thing that comes to mind is the trouble in understanding what people say. Train guardsmen/drivers don’t speak clearly here. That is a fact.
Finally the hit and I find this rather peculiar. The train seats here can be flipped such that the backrest turns into the bunk part and visa versa which turns the seat essentially around. Not entirely sure why this is necessary, but anyway, what struck is that once the train begins to get semi-filled is that people turn the seat in front of them around such that no one could sit down facing them. This is like some fanatic thing here, everyone seems to do it in order to avoid having to possible look at someone facing them. I suppose though that these things are all not unusual in larger cities…
6 comments
The train seats go either way, because the train can go from either end. Most people like to face the way they are going, and quite a number of people do this delibrately, because they can get motion sickness if they face where the train has been.
Other people are just sceptic and have their own reasons for facing forwards
As for people changing the seats… Well, on a Cityrail train, having two lots of people facing each other, depending on the people, can kill the leg room that they have (and it is already quite limited).
So while some people may just not like facing others, there is also quite the valid reason for it
The flipping seats sound rather weird and unsociable. The being pushed and bowled over sounds much like London, but it may be worse.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Sydney and don’t suffer too much by the way of the public transport.
I’ve been having a great time. Went to a Debian special interest group meetup at a bar the first night after enjoying dinner with Silvia Pfeiffer on the waterfront. Spent the weekend with Jeff and Pia Waugh. We had gnocchi on Saturday eve.
Yea, it’s been great. Looking forward to tomorrow nights Sydney Linux User Group meetup. I’ve been told it’s pretty active up here. About 60-80 attendees every month.
Cheers, Pascal
Yeah, SLUG meetings are surprisingly large. Shame I can’t make it - I enjoyed talking about the good ol’ days last weekend.
You haven’t experienced anti-social until you’ve been 6’4” and seen the looks you get if you don’t flip the seat over and therefore use up the entire leg room of the person facing you. Most people avoid being touched by strangers where possible, especially for extended periods, and this is impossible if someone of above average height faces you on a train: your legs will be in contact for the whole trip.
I’m about 6 foot and I’ve had such problems before, well if they are problems. Not something that really bothers me. :)