Public Service

Catching a train into the City today, I was surprised to see a line of people at the ticket vending machine, trains in both directions due in 2 minutes - and a CityRail employee sitting, idle, in the ticket booth behind a "Closed" sign. Okay so it was probably his tea, or other scheduled, break but in the interest of public (transport) service it was not outside the realms of reasonable expectation to think he could have served some of us. The queue at the machine was one person less by the time the City-bound train arrived - and I was grateful when those before me (going in the opposite direction) kindly let me and another cut in. Alas, this was my first attempt at the machine and, failing miserably, I stepped aside and let someone else in, and resolved to waiting for the next train. "Get a ticket from the booth" the train guard advised. "Can't - there's someone there but there's a Closed sign up and he's just sitting there." The guard nodded, smiled, and said "I'll wait" and he did, holding the train until three of us had mastered the machine and had our tickets. In this time, though, the other train had come and gone and its passengers, minus our helpful guard, were left waiting for the next train. Kind of makes you wonder if it's worth putting on extra services for World Youth Day 2008 if staff aren't on-board as well.
But - a big well-done to our guard - who obviously knows the meaning of public transport!