LOL! Kid yourself not. My wife's VFT was delayed by that long in Germany, so she missed her flight - which, unfortunately, wasn't delayed at all.
No transport is immune to delays.
I agree it happens too often, especially at Sydney. We were scheduled to land at 7.00am one day, and were in a holding pattern for 40 minutes. How can they be so far behind so early?
Meeting budget means nothing. What are the absolute figures?
“There is not the density of population to support it and never will be.
“We could have put another 1000 buses on the road for the cost of the light rail.”
Mr Midwood said the light rail had been a ‘gross financial disaster’.
“Translink’s end-of-year newsletter boasts it carried ‘over 6 million passengers in its first year’,” he said.
“An impressive figure to some, but anyone with a calculator can divide that by 365 days to see it only carried 16,438 passengers a day.
“The buses were doing 17,000 without spending over $2 billion, losing 1000 roadside car parks in the inner city and turning Southport’s centre into a virtual ghost town.
“To say nothing of sending countless small businesses bankrupt and stealing half the scarce road space between Parkwood and Broadbeach.
“It was supposed to reduce congestion, not double it.”
Mr Midwood said the cost of the project had grown from an initial estimation of $320 million to be well over $2 billion.
“Initially that $320 million was to cover the full 17km from the heavy rail to Broadbeach — not just the 13km part that cut out the heavy rail link “to save money”.
“The same reason was given for deleting the 1000 car spaces in two large Park & Ride stations at Parkwood and Loders Creek.
“Heaven forbid that anyone should seriously consider extending it into the less densely populated southern reaches of the city.
“But our city planners are already asking our opinion on alternative routes. Have they nothing better to do?
“They can be assured the taxpayers of Queensland will not be offering to pay for such profligacy this time around, as they are already burdened by losses that must exceed $100 million annually, when taking into account interest and operating losses due to disappointing usage.
“Someone please tell them that Gold Coast cannot afford another disaster like this.”
Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate said council’s Transport Strategy 2031 proposed a multifaceted approach to the city’s future transport needs.
Great. So the Chinese want to lend us heaps of money so we can buy their stuff and have a millstone around our neck for a few decades. That doesn't mean it is viable.
And, of course, we have the same population density of China .....
