What's Your Worst Public Transport Experience?

Trains and buses suck, cars rule even though it cost more

Comments

  • +6

    passenger in front opens window to spit out phlegm. bus is going a decent speed on a windy day so a fat blob hits my shirt

    • +2

      You win

  • +3

    Grabs popcorn

  • +7

    Any public transport in Queensland…..

  • +4

    Catching the train from Cardiff to Central when I'm required to work in Sydney and not having to worry about all the idiots on the road, with the trip being of comparable duration. I either catch up on sleep or whack on my Quiet Comforts and watch a movie.

    Public transport in this state / country has room for improvement, certainly, but it still ticks a lot of boxes.

    • +1

      I mean - getting you from A to B should be the bare minimum expected of any public transport system, surely?

  • +4

    The problem is determining the ones who are mentally deranged from the purely obnoxious. If they are deranged I just head for a different part of the tram, if they are obnoxious I take them on; it stops them picking on other people. Most of them just STFU when confronted and you don’t back down. Got on a tram once where it leaked so badly there was water running from the roof past the light fittings and dumping water on random people as the tram took corners.

    • -3

      Just another example of the private sector delivering appallingly bad outcomes at high cost exactly like the opposite that LibLab politicians said they would do. All your tax dollars going to wealthier entities than you who pay almost no tax.

  • I think if enough people respond you'd have quite an extreme list. Due to cycling and walking I take public transport infrequently but have had enough experience to witness a pedestrian struck and killed by my bus and a public masturbator. The urine on the seats and interactions with drunks etc are standard features.

    • +10

      To witness a pedestrian struck and killed by my bus and a public masturbator.

      Ahhh the Oxford comma. That poor pedestrian never saw them coming.

  • Cars suck! Sitting in traffic all day is not my idea of a good commute. Parramatta station gets clogged from time to time due to delays, death on tracks, engine faults etc.. People get crushed at the top of the escalator on the platform, because there is no where to go. They are also too incompetent to shut the escalator off.

  • if your public transport sucks then buy a car. and if you can't afford a car then stop being poor and get a better job. - scott morrison probably

    • Poor people don't drive

    • For people heading to the CBD (of any city) there's not enough parking even if you're rich and have a car. You'd have to be at the "have private chauffeur" level.

  • Some time ago, in the space of 2 months, I was in three trams accidents where they struck cars. There wasn't any hysteria in the patrons just a resigned air of "time to get off and find alternate transport". I swear the tram drivers actually accelerated into the cars.

  • +2

    I've taken public transport since 2008.

    • old man opposite me picks off skin from his nail and it lands inside my shoe
    • guy from subcontinent picking his ears with cotton bud and throwing it onto the tram stop floor
    • young male drawing on the train, getting all defensive when I call him out and boasts about how proud he would be to go to jail, requires beefy viking to take the pen off him
    • racist diatribe from some drunk abusing non white people who then abused me when I stood up for them. Mate I'm not even from Japan so I can't really go back there can I?
    • old white guy in suit telling me to get up for some old lady despite him being in the priority seat and not being very appreciative of privileged white men telling me what to do.
    • guy getting pulled off my carriage. Police: "are you the guy with the bag of machetes?". Yes. Yes he was.
    • heard the sound of a tram hitting a woman. A very meaty thump.
    • other random racist moments such as the old woman sitting next to me and blaming me for the war. War?? NOTHING to do with me.

    Luckily I can defend myself… now.

  • wouldn't call it bad more like funny as F.

    sitting on a surfside bus going from surfers to southport back in the day an really loose messed up junkie was siting on the back seat bragging about his latest batch of smack and singing Gloria Gaynor - I will survive at the top of his voice.

    another time was stuck on a bus full of schoolies one year who were just being loud and obnoxious to everyone, happened to have just bought a few 'fart bombs' from Granny Mays, anyway as i was getting out the back door i set one of those fart bombs off in the bus, will never forget the look on those kids faces as the bus pulled away with that oh so wonderful stench filling the bus.

  • +2

    About 15 yrs ago 87 hr bus trip from Vancouver to Florida (never, NEVER again), a year before that 27 hr bus trip in Lao on crappy mud road with feet on sacks of produce and lady next to me had live chickens, there was a TV at the front that wasn't used until 6 am in the morning then for some unknown reason the driver put on a hardcore porn video with the volume cranked to deafening levels, funniest thing I have ever seen I was sitting next to two elderly ladies and they didnt even bat an eyelid just hands on chin in the "Thinkers" pose watching nonchalantly, parents and kids just chilling and watching porn with deafening moaning filling the 1950s bus, it was one of the weirdest and funniest things I had ever experienced.

  • +1

    Ah, as one who's never owned a car and been catching PT for over 20 yrs, off the top of my head:

    • caught an overnight bus Sydney- Surfers in winter 97 and as it rained thru the nite the bus began to leak thru the aircon hatch right above me. Each steep hill meant all water would roll to the back of the hatch and cascade down on me, keeping me up all night in fear. Full bus so no moving seat. Got off very tired, wet and cold.
    • had a man on a train threaten to kill me, then himself, saying he had a gun. Getting up in my face saying "you'll (profanity) snap too one day, i can see it in your eyes". Only us two in the whole carriage for about 10-15 mins, felt like a hostage! Train stopped for 10 mins at station after someone got on and reported his ranting, and cops came to ambush him off.
    • saw a mum and dad changing their kids nappy on a tangara train (old hard cloth seats) and they just grabbed their kid and dragged its poor shitty arse all over the seat to 'clean' it before putting on a new nappy. Threw disposable nappy under the seats.
    • was in the a train carriage with one other guy in the whole bottom carriage. He stands up and starts pissing, gets a good stream going. With yellow rivulets sluicing around the carriage, it was a good time to ignore cityrail's 'no feet on seats' rule…
    • on a packed bus at coogee beach about 7-8 young guys tried to crowd on after a driver stopped taking passengers. They wouldn't get off so the driver stayed there. Passengers started abusing the guys who then started punching the driver, then dragged him out of his cubicle and kept beating him outside the bus while 3 of the
      guys threatened those on the bus trying to get off to help. Cops ended up catching half the guys as they fled on foot. A screaming mess of chaos, that one…
    • had a thrown brick shatter a rear door of a bus I was on…
  • My worst experience is sitting on a not-really-nice van from Vietnam border to Xieng Khouang, Laos 2 months ago. It took me 20 hours on the rugged and winding mountainous passes. The scenery is just stunning but the air-condition did not work well as the temperature then was up to 40 degrees. What a nightmare!

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