They Had One Job: TRANSPORT PEOPLE

Years ago, I was a shy nineteen-year-old girl traveling from one state capital to another on my own after visiting family. On the first leg of the journey, we caught a coach to a small country town roughly halfway into the twelve-hour trip, had an hour-and-fifteen-minute break, and then got a train (the same company as the bus) the rest of the way.

On the bus trip, I made friends with a twenty-one-year-old lady who was six months pregnant and two guys in their mid-twenties — all making the same trip. When we arrived at the country train station, we could see the train waiting on the platform, but we were told that we could not board for another forty-five minutes. We were advised to go to a popular takeaway place but to make sure we were back at least fifteen minutes before departure time.

So, the four of us headed off to get something to eat, making sure we were back right at the time we’d been told we could board the train — only to find that the train had already left. We approached the one transport company employee, sitting in a company ute, left in the otherwise deserted station.

Guy #1: “Excuse me. What happened? Where’s the train?”

Employee: “Well, duh, it’s gone. What, did you young punks get so stoned you missed it?”

Guy #1: “No, it’s not meant to leave for almost half an hour.”

Employee: “Whatever. It’s not my fault that you’re all so stoned that you missed the train.”

The employee drove off, nearly hitting my pregnant friend in the process.

As we were all fairly young, and credit cards weren’t too common back then, we started discussing our options as the next train wasn’t until the next morning, it was already dark in the middle of winter, and only one of us had clothes with us as the rest of us had checked our luggage. After making calls to family and friends for help, we had no luck.

I called the transport company’s number printed on the ticket and told them what had happened. We were told to get motel rooms for the night, keep our receipts, and get it reimbursed later — even though it was still before the train was even meant to leave and we didn’t have the money.

Luckily, [Guy #2]’s brother happened to be a law student, so the brother got on the phone with the company and threatened to sue them for what had happened — all within the time the train was still meant to be there. The company then offered to provide one room with two double beds for the four of us to share in a town forty-five kilometres away. Once the law student found out about that, he called the company back and demanded to know why four complete strangers — especially two young women, one heavily pregnant — should share a room in a town we were unable to get to.

The company said they’d call us back.

Twenty minutes later, they called back to say they had booked us each a room at a motel, they were giving us a food allowance, and they were going to taxi us our luggage. They also asked if the four of us minded sharing a taxi to the motel and back again in the morning to catch the next train. We happily agreed.

Once we arrived at the motel, we found out that they were the last four rooms left in the area as there was a big farming show on, and our four-star rooms had cost the transport company a lot of money. It also turned out that the only reason they bothered to help was that [Guy #2]’s law student brother had contacted his uni professor asking for advice, and the professor had contacted the company himself.

Twelve years later, I’m still friends with the other three, and I’m godmother to the lady’s youngest child.