(Melb) Daniel Bowen's letter in 'The Age'

[The Vegemite Kid]

On Tuesday the 19th of December Daniel Bowen had a letter published in
'The Age' newspaper. I'm wondering if the editor altered Daniel's
original text, as the wording wasn't quite as radical as Daniel's post
on the same subject in this NG (unfortunately). For those who missed
it, here is the transcript;

Silent night indeed, thanks to trains

In the middle of Christmas shopping, the city shops seemed pretty
quiet this weekend.
Why would this be? Well, our train companies continuing to run short,
crowded trains on weekends could be a reason.
Why should people have to stand on the train at weekends?

DANIEL BOWEN, Glen Huntly

[Daniel Bowen]

G'day,

They printed it as I sent it, but added paragraph breaks. The original text
of my e-mail to them was:
----

In the middle of Christmas shopping, the city shops seemed pretty quiet this
weekend. Why would this be? Well, our train companies continuing to run

short crowded trains on weekends could be a reason. Why should people have

to stand on the train at weekends?

----

Yes, I did tone it down for the paper. My attitude is never to rant to the
paper if I want it to be published, and in a case like this, not to mention
that I've got any interest other than being a rail customer. Including a
mention of Christmas probably helped, and may have triggered something, with
the story that day about how City shops weren't very busy, and the day
before about how Chadstone shops were very busy.

Anyway I think it still got the point across, and it would have been a
pointless exercise if it wasn't published. My hit rate with The Age letters
page is about 70%, which I think is not too bad.

What I also didn't mention to the paper is that when I went into the city on
Saturday, I travelled out of the Saturday peaks (such that there are), and
didn't actually have problems getting a seat, though I did see many other
packed trains, especially a Ringwood line train at Spencer Street. There
were also people (not me) standing on my train home (Frankston line). I did
have problems finding seats the previous Sunday on another 3 carriage
Frankston train.

I should also note that I have not received proper feedback from Connex or
Bayside yet based on feedback I left on their websites about this. Connex
have at least acknowledged it, and thanked me for pointing out the problem
on their server with the bouncing mail from "connexmelboune"!

Daniel
--
Daniel Bowen, Melbourne, Australia
dbo...@custard.REMOVE.net.au
http://www.custard.net.au/bowen/daniel/

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