How to survive public transport problems.

Public transport is made to help people get to where they want to be without the costs of fuel or peeling your bum off the car seat on a hot day. Public transport is also good for those without an automobile and is used quite often. Even I use public transport from time to time. Most of the world's public transport system consists of buses, trains, trams, planes, boats and even just our own two feet. However, public transport is not always reliable and is often said to be very expensive. Cancellations, delays, noise, abuse, vandalism, fare increases, hijackers and crashes are the many common things that go along with public transport. This guide will show you how to survive those many issues that can happen when traveling on a public transport system.

Cancellations and delays are obviously the most common issue to people who catch public transport. They happen predominantly with trains. There is not much you can do about this but just be patient, wait and find something to pass time. Usually the delays only last for about 5 to 10 minutes and be coped with pretty easily. Cancellations aren't as easy to cope with, especially if you have to be somewhere by a certain time. A cancellation can make you wait anywhere from 15 minutes up to a few hours, especially if the cancellations are continuous. When my town of Melbourne in Australia was suffering from 3 days of extreme heat, there were over 100 hundred cancellations across the whole public transport network, but mainly trains. The best thing we could do is just sit back and wait.

Noise, abuse and vandalism are pretty annoying. There is not much you can do about this either. Usually there would be authorized officers around but sometimes you are left to sufferit. There a couple of things that I do that help me when I encounter this everyday on the way to TAFE(Technical and Further Education). I turn my music up and try to concentrate on reading a book or playing my Nintendo DS. This does work sometimes, but noise can override my music when there are lots of people chatting, laughing, yelling or even arguing. Otherwise, I just try hard to ignore the abuse, noise and vandalism thats going on; which tends to work more that music. Ignoring is the only help I can give if your going to encounter vandalism and abuse. If you become a target for abuse and vandalism, tell the driver through either pushing the red emergency button, going to the drivers seat or just hopeing that someone will help or an officer will appear. Dialing 000 or 911 might work too if it's serious.

When fares increases, it's usually due to the government wanting to increase taxes so they can pay for building new railways or upgrading other transport. It can also be due to economic problems. Not much I can say here but just deal with it. Fares are never going to go down and they will always be increasing. When I was young, fares used to cost around $2 Aussie Dollars for a day ticket. Now it costs nearly $6 Aussie Dollars and it is expected to increase again soon. I am dealing with it and it's the only thing I can do. They won't respond to my complaints about it so it's no use complaining. Just take it as a fact of life.

Be aware that hijackers and crashes can happen anywhere on public transport. Your best thing to do when a hijacker is on is just not move or say a word. Don't look at the hijacker(s) either as that may make you a target and you could be in big trouble at that stage. Crashes are more common and quite often happen on buses more than trains, planes, boats or trams. There have been many incidents in the media about crashes. If you do happen to be in one then try and escape as best as you can, or hope that someone will rescue you. If it is about to crash then break out with the emergency hammer and run for your life. It is very unlikely that we will see an incident like the Titanic again, but it too can happen at any time.

In conclusion, common sense is the main thing that can help you deal with all these problems. The help I have given you for the problems is all part of common sense. I hope this helps and gives an insight into what can be a hectic public transport. Good luck when using public transport because sometimes it's like a bloody lottery.