Quit Procrastinating

I've been meaning to start sharing and documenting my rail experiences for sometime now. Now that I've been communiting on the trains for over a year, it's time. Prepare to be riveted!

My intention is not to criticise the trains (there seems to be plenty of that already out there) but rather to give voice to my observations and experiences in the hope that more people will find the idea appealing and leave their cars at home (that's my "social responsibility" taken care of), and also that Veolia Transport (who operate our Auckland network) might occasionally have a read and see if they can't learn something about the service they are operating from a customers point of view.

First, a bit of background... in the morning I drive to Glen Eden from my home in Oratia (about a 7min drive) where I can park for free outside the train station. I catch any one of about 3 trains depending on how swiftly I can crawl out of the sack, dress, brush my teeth, take the dog out to pee, pack my lunch, kiss my wife goodbye and drive to the train station.

My trip usually lasts about 40mins into Britomart, where my work is only one block away. After a day of enterprising, profitable, website anaylising, I head back across to Britomart and catch any one of about 3 trains back to Glen Eden.

Including my drive, a variable wait on the platform and about 40mins on the train, I usually spend no more than 1hr each way commuting.

With that said, starting tomorrow, I'm going to document what it's like to ride the trains in Auckland... more specifically, on the Western Line.