The $2,000 taxi ride: how a simple missed train ended up in an epic six-hour cab journey

Gabrielle Chan's very long taxi ride: ‘There were no leisurely coffee stops on the meter, though there was one toilet break.’ Composite: Guardian Australia

We all know that, occasionally, trains can run late. But last week my $120 train ticket ended up costing NSW TrainLink $2,096.32 because the train left half an hour early.

My town of Harden-Murrumburrah (population 2,000) is nearly halfway from Sydney to Melbourne on the XPT train line. I was heading to Melbourne and figuring that I could be semi-productive, save a few emissions and drop the big-city traffic stress, I decided to catch the train.