For the past six months while working at Griffith University,
something was reconfirmed to me that I have always known throughout my two
years of being in Australia, public transportation in Australia is HORRIBLE. It
may just be Queensland (aka Translink) or even just the Gold Coast, as I have
yet to verify this with Sydney (New South Wales), Melbourne (Victoria) or even
Brisbane (Queensland).
Not only do Translink services abruptly stop or Translink
bus drivers blatantly miss stops or never show up to stops, but the fact that
buses start running earlier/later at certain platforms than others is annoying.
They don’t sync up! Moreover, with the Gold Coast being a predominantly tourist
population, the system overall is always delayed as tourists are continually
asking questions to drivers about what stop to get off of, how much the fare
is, and what bus they would take to get to such and such destination.
Working at Griffith University in Southport is an easily fun
and equally laid back job, getting to and from work though is a whole other
story. For my journey to Southport (20 mins by car), it takes roughly 90 mins
to get there by bus with one. This means that working 5 days a week, I waste
450mins (7 ½ hours getting TO work) when if I had a vehicle, I would only be
wasting 1 hour. Luckily though, I’ve been able to keep busy with PhD readings,
GRE studying, etc. On top of that, because of the timing, I can either get to
work an hour early, or be late by 10 mins. Therefore, I also waste 5 hours of
down time before I actually start my shift. With Queensland security industry
standard pay at $24, I waste $120 sitting around at work before starting,
Now, I clock off at 0400hours every night. HOWEVER, the bus
from Griffith University does not start running until 0550hours. This means I
have to wait almost 2 hours before I can even get on the bus for another hour
of travel before getting home; 3 hours total down time and home by 0730hours.
Again, 5 days a week, that's 15 hours of garbage time wasted. So I wanted to
experiment with taking the 24-hour bus from Australia Fair shopping centre,
which is 4km away from Griffith University.
One night, I decided to walk the 4km to Australia Fair after
my 0400hrs shift to catch the 0500hrs bus (24-hour running bus to Gold Coast
airport) home. Lo and behold, I was home by 0600hrs and typically in bed by
0630hrs. Crazy and annoying that I can either wait for the bus and be home in
bed by 0800 or walk 4km (usually takes me 40mins, I walk fast) and be home and
in bed by 0630.
But I guess the better question is why I don’t just go out
and get a car…
Anyways, just a random observation (and great workout!)
Until then,
Cheers!
-H
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