Melbourne Trains

Most of the locals of Australia, regardless of their jobs and status of living, rely so much on trains for public transport. My wife works in Melbourne CBD and she would definitely need to get on a City loop train to reach her workplace and Sydenham line to get back home. It is more practical to use trains than drive your way to work. It is cheaper to pay for the Metlink ticket which you could already use on buses, trains and trams rather than spend on petrol and parking spaces. It is a lot convenient as well to get on train, put your IPod on, sitback and relax than to drive on the busy streets of the city. My wife spends $160 for her monthly ticket to enable her to travel within zone 1 and 2. Connex also offers an option for those who come to work early and would like to save more. If this suits you, Early bird ticket can be availed of for free provided you reach your destination before 7 am. You only have buy 2 hour ticket to get your way home for only $5 something. So, roughly about $100 per month and could make a saving of $60. Melbourne's Metropolitan trains start from city's Flinder's Lane and stop from suburb to suburb. There are also VLine's interstate trains that travel from different states which for obvious reason is cheaper than the airfare but could provide comfort on your travel as well.

My wife's experience on trains is not always pleasant particularly on peak hours. How many times has her train been cancelled? Too many to think of but not more than the times that they were delayed by 5 to 10 minutes. In times like these, you won't be surprised to see a fully loaded and crowded carriage. People are standing againt each other and squeezed in the middle and on the doorside. You could hardly move and talk. These scenarios have already been part of one's everyday journey to workplace and I think people get used to this. However, there are still some people who complain and swear on what hassles these have caused them.

Who would not ever get annoyed to be late on an appointment or a job interview? But think about this, there are a lot more things to be thankful for rather than dwell on this annoying situations. People tend to be inappreciative of things around them when they haven't seen the world outside. We forget to be thankful of the benefits we've got when we haven't seen other people's suffering from the lack of it.

My wife and I migrated from a third world country where you couldn't get both convenience and savings together and where transport system is far uncomparable to what we have in Australia. I won't elaborate more on this but it's really far behind in terms of comfort and safety. If only Aussies would have a feel of what it's like commuting on our country, then they would realize how lucky they are and they will be more appreciative of the service that Connex trains give them. Migrants like us, who have seen both world, are also lucky to be where we are and that it gives us chance to be more conscious of our thoughts.