Canary in the coalmine
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As the interim CEO it is not her fault that she inherited a debacle and a mess that is costing peoples lives; I just hope my daughter is not one of them lost. I know that Ms Chapman is well intended. I have lost count of how many times my child has been sent home with a "suicide safety plan" from the ED as there were "no beds available."
Bed availability always dictates if and when you will receive any sort of care at all, regardless of how ill you are. A safety plan that a 10-year-old kid could have drawn up in other words is useless and laughable.
Name and address supplied
35 years of 'progress'
The trip was booked for the train both ways late the week of July 22, with the assumption that both ways would be via train. Well was I wrong. I made a comment on Facebook about having lunch before the train on Wednesday, July 31 and one of my friends informed me, "no trains today". Sure enough, we arrive at Wodonga Station to find out it's a coach.
So, thinking it would be a better trip and not so crowded, my adult granddaughter and I chose to go on the coach that was "only" stopping at Seymour and Broadmeadows. An hour and 15 minutes after we were due into Southern Cross, we arrived at the coach terminal at 5.55pm. "Not happy" are not the words I chose to use at the time, but you get the idea.
We found for our return trip, it was actually a train for the 12.05pm to Albury. Happy days. As I had a walker to use in Melbourne, so I could save myself having a fall, the conductor said to go into Car C, with the disabled area. OK, no problem. The ride was Hell on Wheels!! Bumpy, lots of movements, bangs coming from the wheels as the train passed over obvious drops in the level of the rails at joins. We were on the same track that the XPT in The Border Mail's story uses, so seeing the report did not surprise me one little bit.
We ran a better service 35 years ago, when I worked out of Spencer Street as a conductor. Yes I know it was years ago and yes, I know it was broadgauge. But we rarely had trains break down, or engines, or any other part of the service.
I travelled up this way on both tracks back then, and yes, it was so much better. The ARTC needs to pull something out of a hat and get this track fixed. For it to be in the state it is in, in the 21st Century, beggars belief.
Maggie Reid, Wodonga
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