Transport restrictions lack consistency

Despite packed football stadiums, train commuters are being told they must observe social distancing

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Last week, I finally had my prostate operation in Brisbane.

The nurse at The Mater hold me that most of their TURP patients are out next day - so I booked the night train back to Childers.

I would be staying one night in a motel, then one night in the hospital.

On the train to Brisbane, the conductor explained that every passenger had to have 4 seats.

This meant that country services with booked seats could take only 25% of their usual load.

The electric tilt trains normally take 300, but under Covid restrictions are legally "full" once 79 have booked.

A passenger recently had to be left behind because he exceeded this quota - yet the train was mostly empty.

I suddenly realized that if the hospital wanted to keep me an extra night, I would not be able to rebook another train, because they are all "legally full" - even though empty. I seriously began to plan for the prospect of having to hitchhike home.

I met a passenger who travelled on the same train as me.

From Brisbane he flew to Sydney and back. He told me that the plane from Sydney was full - it had only one spare seat.

Brisbane city buses have signs about social distancing, but passengers sit wherever they want - so they are often quite full.

Buses from Brisbane to Cairns also take up to 100%.

At the AFL Grand Final in Brisbane on Oct 24, videos show the grandstand packed, especially behind the goal posts.

Rural Queenslanders can't get surgery locally, because doctors and their partners want to live in big cities, so we have to travel to Brisbane for our operations.

How are we going to do that, if the trains can only take 25%?

Why are rural people losing out again? Don't the politicians and bureaucrats understand?

To cap it off, they have made hitchhiking illegal in Qld.

Peter Myers

Childers

Originally published as Transport restrictions lack consistency