Shit, part two
This is, I think, only our second public service announcement in as many years – somehow, I think that’s a good thing. During the easter holidays (April 8th – April 17th), the Austrian national railways company will replace and repair tracks between the rapid train stations Wien Meidling and Praterstern, which leads to a stop of all rapid train routes (S1, S2, S3, S9) along those lines. This in itself isn’t that unusual – train tracks have to be repaired every now and then to ensure safe travel. Now, what’s so annoying about this is that there will be no “track replacement” this time. The relevant FAQ (German only) states that such replacement lines would not be attractive to customers because they would increase travel times. O rly? As opposed to, say, the increased travel times created by their solution:
“The Wiener Linien will increase the amount of vehicles on the lines U1, U6, D and O. Between April 8th and April 17th, commutation tickets from the ÖBB will be valid in those lines.” Yay. Isn’t that great. The only problem is that instead of establishing separate transportation lines for the now stranded passengers, said passengers are now crammed into the already well-filled regular transport network. According to information by the ÖBB, this means about 80.000 to 120.000 more passengers per day for those lines. Great!
As for what drives where, there will be folders in the affected trains from now on, and according to the FAQ, they will be available in English, too. If you feel Indiana Jonesy, here’s a map illustrating the changes. One important note: Both the S7 and the CAT that connect Vienna to the airport will operate normally.
The only good thing I find in all this is the consistency that it creates. The construction-induced spring delays fit perfectly between the weather-induced winter delays and the holiday-induced summer delays. Now if they only could find a valid reason to fuck up public transfer during autumn, I’d be one constantly unhappy camper.
This concludes my “Welcome to the shit” series. Have a good time!
“train tracks have to be repaired every now and then to insure safe travel.”
Actually, what you do to insure safe travel is pay the insurance company. To make sure = ensure.
This has been a public service announcement, feel free to remove it after fixing that vowel. And No->Now.
Mitzi, as usual I owe you a spell-checked beverage.
deine “semiprofessionellen” artikel sind einfach nur bullshit. das ist die einzige scheisse hier.
schreib doch einfach noch SHIT, PART THREE. denn aller… du weisst schon
vielleicht sollte man einfach dict.leo.org SPERREN
btw… i feel “indiana jonesy” (…) where is the map illustrating the changes?
höhöhö
It’s right where the link sends you to.
http://www.oebb.at/vip8/pv/de/Reisen_in_den_Bundeslaendern/Wien/Aktuelles_aus_Wien/S-Bahn_Streckensperre_(April_06)/Extras/S-Bahn_Streckensperre.pdf
(Can’t beat the ÖBB when it comes to memorability.)
part three could be about the shit people fling your way when they are depressed about something, get drunk because of that, and lose their ability to judge which thoughts should be shared with the rest of the world and how to express them properly.
actually, ensure and insure are interchangeable (synonyms).
according to the dictionary,
“The main question, then, is which word to use in these general senses. Many usage writers suggest that insure be restricted to financial uses and ensure be used for the other senses. If you are going to follow a rule, this might as well be the one.”
btw, i guess, i am missing something, eh??
because of the large number of people who don’t care about unambiguous, expressive language, spelling, or anything of that kind, it has become acceptable to use ‘insure’ for ‘ensure’, especially in the US (where in spoken language, the alternatives are homophonous). thus, phil was perfectly correct in using ‘insure’. however, you still can’t use ‘ensure’ for making contracts that guarantee a payment in case of damage. if your dictionary says so, then maybe it’s right about US usage, but not about Proper English.
even when two (or more) words are largely synonymous, often one of them will convey exactly what you mean, while another one will mostly do just as well, except for exactly those contexts in which the difference is significant. i assure you, sometimes it matters rather a lot wheter the safety of sth. or so. is ensured or insured, so it’s smart to make sure we’re able to make the distinction. sure, i’m splitting a hair four ways here, but once you start sliding down that slippery slope, you might as well declare ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ synonymous, and then you’d say ‘literally’ is interchangeale with ‘figuratively’, and in the end you’ll use only one word for everything, and that word will be ‘fuck’, and your parents will stop talking with you and cut you out of their will. oh, the horror!
Nex, you are my personal hero of the day.