Peta’s Domain

The long awaited Perth-Mandurah trainline finally opened on Sunday December 23rd. I had been so looking forward to the day. At this point I have no idea why because I have my car and public transport is not a necessity for me. I guess I was looking forward to having the choice to use it and the convenience it offered if I did need public transport. Whatever the reason I was so happy it had opened.

Asiri and I thought we’d take the kids for a trip into the city after Christmas to avoid any crowds. We had nothing better to do on the Sunday so we decided to take the kids into the city to see the Christmas lights. It has been years since we’d done that and thought it would be fun. So just before 6pm we trooped off to the train station. It was deserted which surprised me but at the same time I ws relieved to not have to battle crowds. We had to wait for over 20 minutes for the train and amused ourselves by checking out the new station.

The train finally arrived. Ethan was thrilled, Alee was slightly amused, Josh and Mikki sat staring into space, quite bored and wishing themselves elsewhere. The trip was fairly quick, a bit longer than the advertised 20 minutes but definitely quicker than driving. When we arrived in the city we headed for HJ’s and then did a lap of the malls to see the lights. That was a bit of a waste of time. The lights are very boring and the city is lifeless on a Sunday evening. I was surprised by how dead it was. It had been so long since I had been to the city and I thought it would be a hub of activity but it wasn’t. Nothing to see, nothing to do. So back to the train station we went, only to see that the next train would be about 45 minutes. Thankfully there was a gelato shop open nearby so we killed some time with dessert.

When we finally got on the train it suddenly dawned on me that the LCD train schedule had said “Esplanade” not Mandurah as the destination. I thought perhaps it was because the train ran from Joondalup to the Esplanade and then changed to Mandurah once it got there. Then the train stopped, we were at the Esplanade and a train guard was calling out to ‘clear the train’. What!!! I tried to ask him what was going on but he said to get off the train and he’d talk to me on the platform. It was then that we found out that the trains that day were only running from 11am to 5pm as a special ‘opening’ service.

“But there were no signs at the Kwinana staion were we got on”, I told him, feeling just a little bit frustrated. “It was in all the papers” he said. “But I didn’t see the papers” I argued. We’d actually started out after the last train had left the city. Stranded!

So we were stuck in the city with four tired kids. Looking around at them I realised I was the one that was tired - they were having a great time! So we headed up to the busport to find out when the next bus to Kwinana was leaving. It was nearly 9pm so I guessed we would be in for a bit of a wait seeing as buses at that time of night are few and far between.

At the busport I looked around for a timetable but, guess what! No more buses to Kwinana, ever. The train was up and running now so there was no need for the buses! I was just about ready to scream when a very nice young man from the bus company came up and asked if we were stranded because of the trains. He directed us to a bus that was waiting specially for people like us and would stop at all the train stations down the line but it wouldn’t be leaving for about half an hour. Oh, the relief!

It was a stretchy bus, extra long, to take the crowds of unfortunates who failed to read the papers. Apparently they had Carols by Candlelight on the foreshore that night too and were expecting some people from that. The minutes ticked by, the kids were happily playing up and down the aisle, swapping seats and joking around. Asiri went for a meander outside. It was a warm night, really nice actually. I was glad it wasn’t chilly, none of us had jackets. That would have topped it off miserably. Then we were off. I looked around to count how many people were on the bus - besides us, 7 people. Seven other idiots in a city of over a million who hadn’t read the papers. Great!

Ethan sat on my knee and I tried to convince him to sleep but he was way too excited. This was what he’d wanted - a train ride and a bus ride, and he had both in one day. So exciting! The windows were all wide open and the wind was blowing around the bus as we hurtled down the freeway. A thrill ride for a three year old.

The smells were what struck me. Leaving the busport it was diesel fumes and hot asphalt. Then travelling down the freeway through South Perth and Como, it was the smell of salt and rotting seaweed. Then further out, past Rowley Road, it was the smell of horses and hay and country dirt. I love that smell. We were close to home.

The bus dropped us at the train station and we all piled into the car. The kids were on a high, it seemed. They’d had an adventure. They were laughing and joking and playing around in a good way, not a stressed out, bored way that they sometimes do. In all it was a great night, being together as a family, doing something different. One for the memory books.

Category: Family