Cityrail - thanks for fucking up your website too
For those of you who don't know, Cityrail is the state-owned organisation responsible for the train services linking the suburbs of Sydney and the surrounding cities. For those of you who don't give a shit about Australia's public transport system, empathise with me on the level that government incompetence is universal.
Cityrail has always pissed me off. The tickets are overpriced and always go up in price, Central station attracts only the highest quality weirdos and the speakers in the carriages can convey only two sounds - static and feedback. But those in charge are more than just incapapble, sometimes they are downright malicious.
Trackwork. Okay, I get it, railways need servicing. But why the fuck is the servicing scheduled on the following occasions, every year without fail:
*Mother's Day - because no one ever travels on Mother's Day, everyone is at home with their mothers, right? Proof that those in charge are basement-dwelling creeps
*Father's Day - well, at least they are encouraging gender equality
*Every bloody fucking long weekend - are you kidding me? Every form of transportation, from highways to footpaths, becomes congested each long weekend. Why the fuck would you shut down train services during these times?
When trackwork occurs, they run buses between stations. Assuming that the bus even goes from the station you want to your destination, prepare to slap on an extra hour. Great.
But now they have really outdone themselves in the "are they evil or just plain stupid?" department. Their website, specifically their timetables, have undergone an improvement a change. Used to be you'd pick a day, pick a line and direction, and it would bring up a list of all services running. Very simple, very easy to read, clearly shows you all your options.
But now? Oh no, not anymore.
Now they have given you more options, options that don't work! And are mandatory! Instead of a timetable, it asks you to enter in the specific time you want to leave or arrive, and then gives you all services running at that time give or take a few hours. Except it doesn't work on my computer, and it doesn't work on my sister's phone. No matter what time you enter, it brings up the trains leaving between 4am and 8am. Oh, but it let's you choose which day you want! Just as long as you are travelling between these times, it is perfect!
Now, maybe the problem is at my end. I do use older browsers, and phones suck at browsing (BOCTAOE). But if you think about it, a timetable is, in it's most simple form, organised text, at it's most complex, a simple java application. How is it that I can use websites like xtranormal with no problems, but not use this stupid piece of government shit at all?
Oh, it's worth noting that the new format and interface is an exact copy of another website, tripplanner, which factors in bus and ferry routes as well as trains. So thank you Cityrail for:
*taking something simple and usable and replacing it with impossible complexity,
*giving us two websites that do the exact same thing,
*scratch that last one - giving us a watered-down and unusable copy of an existing website
Go back to playing with toy trains, you twisted and unfortunate examples of the worst stereotypes bureaucrats can possess. Even though nothing will keep me from my mother come Mother's Day, doesn't mean you have to make it difficult for me.
