Tales of a non-stitching commuter .....

I wont be arrogant enough to say that yesterday was karma - but it did go to prove that the boy scouts have the right motto.

4pm I'm sitting at my desk typing away, when I see the time - bother running late, want to get the 4:30pm train.  Close down the email I'm typing, grab my bag and out the door.  Heading up to the bus stop, bother I didn't go to the toilet - oh well I'm fine, I can hold on for another hour or so. I'm starting to feel kinda sheepish about my insistence on going to the toilet before I leave work "just in case".  Oh bother - left my mobile on my desk - oh well I'll collect it tomorrow, there's the bus.  I came round the corner and joined the end of the queue. S the wanker is a few feet ahead of me.  About 6 yards further on the queue comes to a sudden halt as the bus is full and the driver says "wait for the next one".  Just as he is closing the door S the wanker breaks ranks and jumps aboard.

I don't say anything, what's the point?  I just wait patiently, enjoying the warm air after an air conditioned office all day.  Its currently 34oC (95oF) . Our first hot day of the Spring Season.

Just as the bus pulls out another one slots straight in and I'm on.  No pushing, no shoving, no being a wanker, and I have a seat!  Yay!  We take off less than 5 minutes after the previous bus.  We get into Central train station and I'm on the 4:30pm train, sitting in a good seat by myself, with my book out ready to go at 4:25pm!  Kewl!  Doing well.  Have no food or drink weighing down the backpack, and about an hour's reading in my book.  All perfectly planned at set to go.

I'm re-reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaimen.  Not having my watch or my mobile I have no idea of the time.  A short while later, I assume 4:30pm - the usual train announcement starts "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the 4:30pm train to Gosford. This train will not be leaving the station.  There is a grass fire near Cowan and the rail line on the Central Coast and Newcastle line has been shut for now".

Ummm OK. I look around - half the commuters are getting off the train chatting together with comments like "Glad I have family in Sydney" "I'm off to Hornsby".  The rest pull out mobile phones and start telling loved ones that they will be late home.  One woman rings works and finds out that all the roads as well as the train line have been cut because of the fire.  There is *no way* to get home.

OK - What are my options? I don't have my mobile, I left it at work.  I don't have anyone I can stay with in Sydney. I can't see the point in catching another train through to Hornsby and milling around there instead of here.

Central, where I was, is the central and main hub for all trains in the Sydney region.  It is huge and has 30 or so different platforms?  To get from one part of Sydney to another you usually have to go through Central.  It has payphones and ATMs and fast food places and newsagents and a short walk to the centre of Sydney CBD and backpacker accommodation if necessary.

Hornsby is the last major train stop before you leave Sydney on the way North.  It has I think 4 platforms.  No amenities on the station, but it is a short walk to the Hornsby shopping centre.

I have a yearly train ticket, I can go on and off the platform as much as I like.  Other people, who bought a single or return for the day, can't go out through the turnstiles at Hornsby or Sydney without invalidating their tickets .....

I settle back in my seat with the other dozen or so passengers and read my book for another half hour or so.  After that I get restless, so I grab my backpack, leave the train and walk down the platform towards the turnstiles and (on the other side of them) the toilets.  Really good thing too - I really needed to go to the loo !!!! 

I use the last of my cash coins to phone Workmate A to let her know I was alright.  Her daughter answered the phone - mum's down in Victoria at a conference - whoops yeah I forgot that was this week!

I trudge back along to the newsagents, buy a phone card, come back and queue for the payphones and ring P.  Let him know where I am.  His advice was to stay put.  Don't go to Hornsby.  Him and his mum got stuck at Hornsby one day due to fires and they had to sleep on the floor of some club - at least being in the heart of the city, they could provide you with better accommodation than that!

I wait my turn again and then ring mum and let her know I was safe.  Well let the answering machine know again.  I trudge back the central area - there are thousands of people, working commuters and travellers with luggage all milling around.

Loudspeakers have been set up. "Attention all passengers. The train line and all roads around Cowan and towards the Central Coast and Newcastle have been closed due to a grass fire.  We do not know when they will be open again.  If you can delay your travel we suggest you do so.  Please do not catch suburbans trains to Hornsby as that station is already over crowded.  We apologise for the delay.  The first trains will not be leaving here until after 6pm.

The heat is getting to me.  Its hot, its sticky and humid, the industrial smells of the trains ... Its still over 34 degrees, over 95F.  I trudge back to my train.  My 4:30pm train. My 4:30pm air-conditioned train.  I wonder if S the wanker managed to get the 4:15 train and if he got through before they closed the line?  If he didn't he would be one of those at Hornsby I suspect. 

Entering my original carriage I stop near a gaggle of ladies in their 70s and 80s sitting at the back of the carriage having a party.  They were up for a day trip shopping together and this is just one more highlight to their day!  I stop and talk with them and bring them up to date with announcements outside on the tracks.  They are lovely ladies and offer to share their sandwiches with me.  I politely decline but I sit with them and chat for a while before delving into my book again.

An announcement comes over the PA - the track has been opened.  First train to leave will be on Platform 5.  We are on Platform 11.  I get up and look over to see thousands of people streaming for Platform 5.  I see hundreds of people streaming for our train.  What's going on I ask the first person who enters our carriage.  He says, this is the second train to leave and the one on Platform 5 is full.  Oh well then!  We're in the right place !!!!  We settle down and watch the train on PLatform 5 leave, and all the people still milling ont hat platform pushing because it was too full for them to get on.  I shudder.... I'm not in that much of a hurry.

In the meanwhile, our train has started up again and the ladies are chatting excitedly.  And then the train shuts down.  Announcement comes over the PA.  "Attention all passengers. The train line and all roads around Cowan and towards the Central Coast and Newcastle have been closed again due to the grass fire.  We do not know when they will be open .  If you can delay your travel we suggest you do so.  Please do not catch suburbans trains to Hornsby as that station is already overcrowded.  We apologise for the delay.  The delay time is indeterminate.  We do not know when the lines will be open again."

The ladies around me laugh and start joking about where the government would put us up for the night.  I finish my book.  I read my new World of Stitching magazine cover to cover.  I read the old World of Stitching Magazine that I won on eBay cover to cover.  The ladies start taking it in shifts to go to the toilets and buy more food.  They offer to mind my bag and seat for me.  I wander off and go to the toilet again.  I buy a gluten-free snack bar.  I look at the chocolate bars but they are all melted in the unexpected heat.  There are still thousands of  people crammed and walking around the station.  I wish I had brought my camera.  I wish I had brought my phone.

I see a group of guys in orange vests standing around with walkie talkies.  I walk up to one of the cute younger looking ones.  "So I assume this has made your afternoon more interesting".  He grinned at me and replies something about "needing this like a hole in the head".  An older woman, expensively dressed in her late 40s or 50s comes bustling up yelling at one the men.  He brings her over to the guy I'm chatting to.

"Your website says the trains are running - and yet they are all still here - what are you doing? How incompetent are you people anyway !!!!" She storms off before he gets a chance to reply.  Me and my big mouth quips, "oh yeah, lets just send train loads of people right into the middle of a bush fire to get crispy-crittered!"  All the men in the orange jackets laugh or cough and grin.  The cute one points to the train on Platform 11 (my train).  That one, he says quietly, will be the first to leave as soon as we get the OK.  The previous train to leave only got as far as Redfern - we wont let you guys leave until we know we can get you all the way through.

Thanks I grinned and sauntered back to my train.  I chat some more to the ladies and read a newspaper one of them had finished with. Suddenly there is a surge towards my train and it fills.  The guards are all along the platform and they don't allow too many people on.  No-one standing.  All seats full but that is all.  As we pull out of the station I see Police coming onto the Platform to deal with angry people left behind. Its pitch dark now - I can't see if they filling up another train or not.  Its 6:45pm and we are just leaving Central.  We stop at Redfern and Strathfield and Epping to collect commuters that were stranded there.  They all had to stand in the aisles.  That's why they didn't let too many on at Central - we had more people at worse stations to collect.  And then we pulled into Hornsby.

It was like those television news footage's of New York and Tokyo.  People standing on every square inch of platform, throughout the entire station.  Just one seething mass of sardine-packed humanity.  We were already overfull but they crammed on anyway.  They kept cramming and pushing even when no one could get anymore.  They were standing in the aisles, in the doorways, sitting on the steps between levels. No-one could move. 

We went through Cowan in the darkness.  We couldn't see any orange glow so I think the fire was completely out or simply in another gorge or over the other side of one of the mountains.  We crossed the main highway a couple of times and the cars were still roadblocked.  The roads were not open and there were thousands of cars just gridlocked and standing still.

Twice at the smaller stops I saw people who tried to move through the crowds to the doors but couldn't get there before the train left their stations and they couldn't get off.  Too many people. Saw one cute guy.  Roarke style shoulder length wavy hair, John Lennon sunglasses, a pentagram around his neck on a leather thong, white singlet and jeans.  Gorgeous latino body.  I was moving my head to check out his ass, when he saw me, turned slightly and gave me a butt wiggle and a wink.  I laughed but he was swept off with the next group of people at the next stop.  There was no way I could have gotten through to where he was or even spoken to him.

We still had people standing up when we pulled into Gosford.  We arrived in around 8:20pm.  I scurried around to the toilets yet again.  I hadn't drunk any water since leaving work - why did I need to go three times so urgently!  Oh I see.  Welcome back my dear friend Cystitis!  Oh and no toilet paper in the stalls either I see.  Oh well.  I'm just a few minutes from home.

I walk up to the commuter car park and all the cars were still there.  It was 8:30pm at night but there were more cars than I usually see when I get in at 6:00pm.  A couple of other people were talking.  We were lucky.  The train I was on was indeed the first train to get through.  The 4:15 had been stopped at Strathfield.  The one that left before us had been stopped at Redfern.  All these trains waited until we had gone through before they loaded up and followed us out.  As I drive out in the traffic jam I see another train pull into the station and disgorge thousands of passengers.

Each of my commuter trains have 8 carriages. Each one can handle 2000 sitting passengers.  I reckon we had close to 4000 people on each train going through the fire area last night.

Got home, rang mum and Paul again. Ate a couple of squares of chocolate, went to the loo again and again and went to bed.

Woke up a few more times for loo breaks and was sooo tired at 5am that I just rolled over and went back to sleep.  Don't know what the fire situation is today or whether the lines are open or closed.

I'll find out tomorrow.  According to some of the long term commuters this happens three or four times each summer.  So in future I'm going to be prepared.

Carry a couple of health bars with me at all times.  Carry some citrivescence and water.  Carry more than one hour's worth of reading and always always, bering some stitching to do.

And you never know, I might see the cute guy who wiggled his butt me again next time!