Two stories: Public Transport and Gaming

[tcpip]

So I'm halfway on my 1.5 hr journey to work on Wednesday when the Business Director rings to say one of the routers has fallen over and could I return to the city to reset it. No problem; it's one of the things I do and besides I quite like hanging out in big rooms with thousands of servers humming away. Finally returning to deepest darkest Croydon I discover that there's another twenty minutes for the next connecting bus so I visit the tiny second-hand bookstore in the arcade and discover a small mountain of ancient roleplaying tomes going very cheap indeed. I put aside some twenty books and promise the shopkeeper to return the following day. Two stories follow:

The first was the return journey home in the evening. It begins with the bus being late and thus not connecting with the departing train to the city. This happens sometimes and requires a further twenty minute wait. Then the inevitable; "Connex apologises for any inconvenience caused", a sound to whit Melbourne commuters should respond with a slow chant of "Connex are wankers". The second train had been delayed by a further fifteen minutes. Finally arriving at Richmond station the connecting train there wasn't due for a further minutes and that one was going to be an additional fifteen minutes late. I ended up catching the ever-dependable 246 bus home; a service that has been stable since I first moved to Melbourne fifteen years ago.

The fact is that Melbourne's train system, once considered the envy of other cities, is now totally dysfunctional. The incredible incompetence of the private providers, who are so bad that even the British Conservatives have admitted that rail privitisation has been a failure (notably this is from the same company). However, let this be a rule of thumb: private industries do a worse job at infrastructure than public organisations. The PTUA is on the right track in this regards (pardon the pun), but the "Socialist Left", Transport Minister seems to think the government should have marginal responsibility at best.

Now, story two; arriving the following day before the bookshop closed, I collected my twenty RPG books for the bargain price of $150. The shopkeeper enquired whether I was interested in the others. "Not this time" was my response ('twas a heavy load, being twenty books). "How about the rest for an additional $100?". It was a bargain I couldn't refuse. Dispite the incredible difficulty of travelling from Croydon to Ripponlea, I eventually made it and catalogued my haul: fully 134 books, including several boxed sets, a dozen hardbacks, old Tunnels & Trolls classics, a dozen Ars Magica books, twenty Champions scenarios etc.. Ran Seven Leagues last night; seriously fun system set in magical and mythical faerie realms; have also hacked our way through half of G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant, in the ongoing retro-AD&D game. Recently reviewed the new Earthdawn Players Compendium and Ruby.

Comments

[mireille21.livejournal.com]

It's certainly a very sad commentary indeed that our train system *was* once one of the best in the world, and was the best in Australia I think, but now has not only declined in the past ten years but become so utterly crap it's a true embarrassment these days. *sigh*

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

It's a terrible situation. From the ticketing system, to the timetabling to the behaviour of the inspectors Melbourne's public transport system has been reduced to perhaps one of the worst experiences in an OECD country. Indeed, it would be quite a challenge to find a system that is worse.

It would be an act of profound shame if the State government renews the Connex contract imo.

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

Sydney, but that's not saying much at all.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, Sydney's landscape is an inbuilt disadvantage. I'm always quite amused by the "upturned bowl of spaghetti" that their bus-map consists of.

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

There is aspect of this that isn't fair to Connex. When the government ran the railways, it was bodgy as hell. eg. There were times when they simply didn't pay any of their bills for months, except wages. They would send their suppliers bankrupt, or close to it, and basically say "We're the government. Tough!" That effect isn't seen by the travellers or the workers, but it has a cost to parts of the community. Connex would no doubt be in trouble if it behaved that way, so there are higher costs to it for having to behave the way accountable companies have to behave, rather than the way unaccountable public servants behave.

Public transport in parts of the US and Canada is indeed worse than here. The only time I've been made late for a plane by the Toronto train system.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

On that sense I'll certainly cede a point to the private provision of the service.

[zey.livejournal.com]

Really though, it's the suppliers own fault if they don't have the balls to tell a dodgy customer, "No more credit: cash only sales to you, Sonny Jim."

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. When the dodgy customer is that big, you may simply have no alternative than to live with it or shut down anyhow. If a large proportion of your business is supplying the railways, you can't necessarily just pull another customer out of thin air. If your product or service is specifically tailored to the railways (eg. customised software), there may only be a few other possible customers in the whole country. A small supplier who gets a government contract is really at their mercy. They hire a whole lot of staff and do the work and, if they're not paid on time, they're buggered.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

OTOH, they can be relatively certain that their customer will eventually pay. I'm sure you've had the experience of clients who simply do not cough up the money at all.

[(Anonymous)]

That gaming cache is like something you dream of finding in an out of the way store, but never actually find.

I am in envy, gaming books or not.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

That Anon comment?
That was me, not being logged in.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

No problem, that happens somethimes :-)

I was also blessed by Alternate Worlds having their annual sale today. 50% off boxed RPG sets!

[dodgethis.livejournal.com]

Good old 246! I caught it for eight years, when it was the only public transport near my house. It was so much more reliable than any of the trams or trains I've had to rely on since.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The stability of the route and the distance it travels I think has a great deal to account for its popularity.

[maxxxie2.livejournal.com]

Did I read that right? 134 books? Holy crap, please tell me you had a forklift or a wheelbarrow or something to carry all of that.

Tell me more about where you work - I'm guessing it's a data centre?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Heh, it was quite a struggle via PT, I can assure you. However when arriving at my station I hacked a solution; I found a wheelie-bin to transport the boxes.

I work at Internet Vision Technologies; it's a very good environment.

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

link is down yet host resolves, restart apache.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Done. Thanks for the call. Much appreciated.

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

h4x0red :)

But wheely bin? I hope you found a relatively clean one! I have this compulsive thing where I don't even like to touch the handles of a wheely bin.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

h4x0red

Heh. Doubt it.

I hope you found a relatively clean one!

Ahh, I just used the lid of the wheelie bin as a stable top.

[demonhellfish.livejournal.com]

Excuse me being on this side of the pond, but is a wheelie bit? A garbage can with one pair of wheels, like those nasty green things?

And was that 134 books for 250 AUD, not USD?? Damn!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Yes and yes. Pretty good deal, eh?

[laptop006.livejournal.com]

I've never had a real problem with the Glen Waverley train line, most trams are pretty good, but the busses have always been horrible.

Greater frequency would help and does seem to be very slowly increasing.

[tau-iota-mu-c.livejournal.com]

You're kidding me? I guess you have been there much longer than I had, but the frequency never showed signs of improving.

I hated having to go back onto the Camberwell line from the Glen Waverley line. The trains never synced.

[laptop006.livejournal.com]

It's only started improving since very late last year, so you missed it.

Agreed that trying to switch routes is almost always horrible. The only one I don't care about is coming in to work and catching a tram up Swanston st. because they're so frequent.

[cjander.livejournal.com]

Connections between buses and other transport modes are quite a disgrace. But its not as easy as issuing a ministerial direction. Bus services in Melbourne are mired in decades of conflicting contracts and a potential legal minefield if any government tried to untangle it without the co-operation of bus companies. However, there is hope. There has been a consolidation of many bus companies and the establishment of a fairly forward thinking Bus Association of Victoria. So now (or at least it was late last year when I last heard) a process underway to standardise all contracts and fix this part of the mess.

That being said we need to do things like increase bus frequencies to closer to train frequencies, increase hours of operations and make sure bus routes go to places like train stations (like next door, not a block away). It ain't something that can be done overnight, and it is being done, but not quick enough for my liking.

On Connex. Well Connex is an convenient whipping boy, and some of it they deserve. Their relationship with customers and the broader community is appalling, and in this they are often their own worst enemy. That beings aid many of the problems with our train network are more the fault of government then Connex. This is primarily the abysmal lack of investment in heavy rail over the past 40-60 years. This government is taking some steps towards correcting the problem and the infrastructure bottlenecks, but Treasury has imposed growth assumptions on the Department of Infrastructure that are unrealistic (ie. 3-4 percent rather then the existing 10 percent). We need the government to own up to the problem and do more and be a bit more ambitious then they currently are.

To be honest, the idea that our rail system is privatised is a real myth. yes, private companies OPERATE the services, but the rail, rolling stock, planning, control over timetabling, level of service etc. is with the Public Transport Directorate of DOI. So the government OWNS and CONTROLS public transport.

The current debate over public transport is so lacking in intellectual honesty and rigour its quite insane to be honest and I like to characterise it as a civil war. The only one's who win from continued fighting over operating contracts is the roads lobby, who are trying their level best to get a brand spanking new tunnel built under the inner northern suburbs to make it easier for people to drive into the CBD.

That's the real disgrace IMHO.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

To be honest, the idea that our rail system is privatised is a real myth. yes, private companies OPERATE the services, but the rail, rolling stock, planning, control over timetabling, level of service etc. is with the Public Transport Directorate of DOI. So the government OWNS and CONTROLS public transport.

By your own description it seems that the government owns the infrastructure and the private company operates the service. The fact isthat haven't done a particularly good job.

[darknova666.livejournal.com]

sounds awful

[amphigori.livejournal.com]

If you ever, ever come across the core Changeling rulesbook could you please let me know? I really, really want to get my hands on that.

Also, unrelated, I want to try running a rules-lite one off to fill a gap in my regular TT game. Can you recommend a particular system that'd be fairly adaptable to a range of genres/scenarios?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

You know, I have a very nice 1st edition of the Changeling rulesbook. Quite beautiful it is... And yes, to your good self I would be prepared to sell it.

Rules-light one-off? Hmmm... How about HeroQuest?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Another thought on the multi-genre side... Savage Worlds.

[rogue-scholar.livejournal.com]

Every time I hear "Connex apologises for any inconvenience caused" I want to punch their CEO. It's so fake. I hate the way it suggests inconvenience is a possibility, like it's possible that this is actually a better outcome for some passengers. The train is late! That's not "any inconvenience", that's a very specific pain in the arse! If they even cared enough to fake sincerity it would at least be: "We're sorry for the inconvenience."

I did a small radio feature on the whole PT shemozzle the other week, as a uni assignment. I was going to get it broadcast on RRR, but the damn thing ran aground, largely because of the arrogance of those running the system. Connex's PR guy demanded to know what questions he would be asked before he gave an interview, then refused to comment on anything which had any hint of criticism or was not strictly related to Connex's business doctrine. And they were absolute lap-dog questions to begin with! Things like: "What do you think of public transport's role in combating climate change." He basically said "We don't want to know. Piss off and talk to the government" - and yet he then promised an angry phone call from him if I broadcast anything negative against Connex on the topics he'd refused to speak about.

Then when I rang Lynne Kosky's office, they were even worse. They had a better excuse for palming me off, since it was a week after the Kerang crash, but they were very cold about it. The media officer said: "We might get back to you, but I won't promise anything. You're basically our lowest priority." Ouch! Even if it's true, it's hardly polite. Sure enough, after a week, when it came to hand the assignment in, I still couldn't get a peep out of them.

Anyway. I got a bit of research done along the way. As a train user, I already knew the system was in bad shape, but what I didn't expect to find was that the State Government has been essentially covering up the dismal state of Connex's performance. Every time the Director of Public Transport comes out and compares punctuality and cancellation standards since privatisation, they compare Connex's (self-reported) figures with those from the two-year period right before privatisation, when the whole system fell in a heap because it was being restructured. Not to mention that those stats don't take into account the definition of a late train was loosened when they privatised the system, from five minutes to six, against the recommendation of the Auditor-General who suggested tightening it to three minutes. The kicker is that nobody will say who made that decision or why.

No doubt you might have heard of this already, but if you haven't, Dr Paul Mees from Melbourne Uni's Urban Planning Program has a great summary of the whole thing (that's a pdf).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The insincerity is quite awful; I don't think anyone believes that Connex is sincere about anything, except their desire to get their contract renewed. The actions of the Connex PR guy is just further evidence of how much they really want to discusss the issue in the public sphere.

Kosky's crew (despite their alleged socialist convictions) would rather have the entire problem go away, which of course is a great mistake. There is great things that could be done with public transport, things that would improve the productivity of Melbourne and make the city a much better place to live.

The good Dr. Paul has bee a thorn in the side of the powers that be for many years. I consider myself fortunate to know him on a personal basis.

[telarus.livejournal.com]

ED forever!

Thanks for the fairly balanced review. I've been a big fan of ED since it came out, and really appreciate the craft and artistry that Redbrick put into their edition.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

No problem. I quite like Earthdawn, and Redbrick have done a great job. I'm thinking of organising a game for Unicon.

[telarus.livejournal.com]

Cool. You may be interested to know that I'm working on a couple of additions to the mechanics/setting. Modular and optional.

1)A mass combat system, based around forge-ish fortune in the middle Conflict resolution. (One of a few interlocking modular mass combat systems in the works, some more crunchy war-gamerish, some squad based)

2)I've vectorized the Barsaive and Vivane Box set maps into a basic Flash map. Demo has scrolling/zooming, and all the places on both maps (as well as cara fhad book map, and the crystal raiders book map)...Working on a digital terrain map that includes elevation.

3)Working on developing a "Keys" xp/Legend system based around The Shadow of Yesterdays 'Keys" system. Called "Key Passions" each character can have up to 5 Key Passions that serve as a Legend engine, tied to one of the Passions in the Game. Example: Raggok (Revenge, Murdered Brother) Gain 50 Legend when your character discovers something that will lead them closer to the target of her revenge. Gain 150 Legend when you cause the target of your revenge to suffer an inconvenience or annoyance. Gain 300 Legend when you cause your target lasting harm or strife.

Players are urged to select Key Passions to represent "Plot/Action Flags" for their characters, i.e..what they as players want to see the Conflicts of play about. These Key Passions allow the GM to generate Bangs, etc, etc.

4) Developing Steampunk and Clockpunk themed additions to the setting (The T'skrang of the Serpent Rive Houses already have Steam Engines, and the right events would lead to sharing that tech with key allies), with the addition of new Magics, and Disciplines, and Tech. I wanted to open up the possible settings and themes one could explore to include gritty, noir, and punk.

Oh, and if you're not familiar with it, I would urge you to check out the Earthdawn Publishing Trust (EDPT.org).

Namaste