ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Thanks to repeated budget cuts and staff layoffs, the service on the Betoota MetroLine has continued to slip.
Which is why many people like Ahmed Pendergast feel compelled to run to catch a train if they see one, rather than wait for the next service and spare themselves the embarrassment of running in public.
But it doesn’t always end well.
“I’ve run for trains and just missed them before,” said the 29-year-old literary agent.
“The feeling is horrible, knowing you’ve put all that effort it. To run in dress shoes and everything. Only to be left huffing and puffing on the platform,”
“Left huffing and puffing with a 20-minute wait ahead of you. But today I made it and the feeling is incredible.”
This morning, Ahmed noticed on the timetable board as he was walking down the front steps of the Betoota Ponds Terminus that he only had a minute or two to be on the platform.
A stiff breeze was already blowing up the stairs from the platform.
“I broke into a frenzied sprint,” he said.
“Down the steps to the platform like Fred Astaire and I burst into the train carriage like Jona Lomu running over Mike Catt in the 1995 World Cup,”
“The doors snapped shut behind me. The train guard tried to ruin my day but I fucking won. I made eyes with everyone else in the carriage and they smiled back. Today is going to be a good day.”
More to come.
