The 17:09 from Swan Hill didn’t arrive tonight.

I was upset to read about the Kerang train crash. For all my bitching, I love travelling by train. When it works, it’s clean, cheap, quick, comfortable. And safe — rail travel has a deserved reputation for being one of the safest ways of getting around: about five times safer than by car. Accidents involving the deaths of rail passengers are very rare, especially in Victoria.

Which just makes a multi-fatality rail accident all the more shocking, particularly only just over a year since the Trawalla crash. Obviously there will be investigations as to what happened, but initially it looks like a terrible mistake on the part of the truck driver.

While driver education plays a role, to my mind it’s pretty clear that there need to be upgrades to level crossings. While the Murray Valley Highway isn’t a major highway, it’s busy enough, and protecting trains from B-doubles using just flashing lights and bells obviously isn’t enough.

PS. Wednesday 7pm. You know something bad’s happened when the BBC ring you up: Australia crash highlights safety concerns

I’m sure most of us have already worked this out, but let me decode the phrase “aspirational goal” for you. It means “goal that we’d like to reach, but we’re not going to actually make any effort to reach, and there certainly won’t be any penalties or anything if we never come close.” In other words, it’d be terrific if it happened by itself. Yeah right.

Examples from our illustrious leaders:

• [Prime Minister John Howard] said the Government would next year — the timing recommended by the group — set a long-term “aspirational goal” for emissions reduction.
• [Bush's proposal for international] meetings would not be to set caps on emissions, but to establish what the White House — uncorking a bold new euphemism — calls “aspirational goals.”
• [Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky] played down the Government’s aim of doubling all trips taken by public transport by 2020, describing it as always aspirational.

What a load of bollocks. Either you support a goal, or you don’t. And if you do, you should be actively working towards making it happen, not just saying it’d be a good idea.

You don’t see football teams talking about aspirational goals, do you? — No, because they actually want to achieve something. Richmond are at the bottom of the ladder, and aspire to start winning games and climbing the ladder. But the difference between them and the politicians is they’re actually trying to make it happen.