Whydiss

Commuting to work has been my way of life for the last couple of years. Never in my wildest dreams when thinking of my working career did I factor in commuting. I am a country girl and the longest anyone has to drive to work is 5 – 10 minutes and when you are arrive at work, there are always plenty of parking spaces for all the workers.

Commuting to work in the central business district (CBD) of Brisbane for the last couple of years has taught me many lessons. It can be the biggest pain in the rear end when all goes wrong, here are some of useless pieces of information that I have learnt about commuting.

No matter what train your catching the next one going in the direction you want is called ‘my train’. Three minutes delayed in traffic while driving my car, means I miss my train and will have to wait an 15 – 30 minutes for the next one to show up. The 9am train is always late and over crowded and arrives at my station at 9.08am. The next train which is 9.15am arrives on time, is never over crowded and I see the same people on it year in and year out, but we don’t talk and have never introduced ourselves.

It quickest I have ever filled up my petrol tank in my car is 4 minutes. That was pulling straight up to a pump, filling up from bone dry, paying at the register and driving away.

When I arrive at platform 5 waiting for my train to leave in the evening, I always need to use the bathroom. I have worked out it takes me 4 minutes to leave platfrom 5; use the bathroom and be back in time to catch my train at central station.

My bad habit of leave things to the last minute also means I regularly miss my train.

People stand in unmarked spots on the platform where the train pulls up and opens the doors. Even if you are the first person to stand on the magical spot, waiting for the train to arrive this doesn’t mean you will be the first on the train. There will be a crowd waiting on the magic spot by the time the train arrives and once the doors open, it is every man for himself.

When doors of the train open, do not stand directly infront of the doors because you will block the people getting off the train. Yes people must exit the train before you try and enter, just like when using a lift. Don’t get me started with lift etiquette.

When there are people on the train that don’t commute everyday, they always end up chatting to me, it is a country people thing. In a city with over 2 million people it is the out of towners, country people that find me sitting on a train commuting into the CBD and we chat about the weather and what brings them to the big smoke (city).

The best part of commuting on the train, it is 30 minutes in my day where I can crochet or read a book or catch up on facebook or chat about the weather with a complete stranger from the country.