PR, The Art Of Apportioning Fault Elsewhere
Posted 22nd January 2001

Wellington, NZ: A school-boy was dropped at Taita station after buying a ticket from Waterloo to Upper Hutt. He was reportedly told at Taita the train was going no further and he had to get off. He walked 11km and arrived home just before 10.30pm after a 5 hour walk. The TranzRail response to a nightmare journey for the boy? Send in the PR spokeswoman Nicola McFaull. Never mind finding out what happened, why and how to prevent a repitition. Nicola's considered response "He should have had phone money. "I wonder why a mother doesn't give her boy phone money to keep him safe,". Could TranzRail be to blame? Apparently not.

Ms McFaull said his parents should have better trained him for an emergency. "We would have expected (his father) to have trained his children in emergency procedures. The boy's old enough now." We are now expected to accept without question that Ms McFaull is and expert in parenting as well as knowing how to cover-up for company blunders as she proceeded to divert any possibility of TranzRail fault to a guard. It seems the `workers' are still the problem with the world. "It's expected that the guards take care of school-age children and if we find that he hasn't, then we will take appropriate action." McFaull said. She said the boy should have been told to wait at the station because a train to take him to Upper Hutt would have arrived in less than five minutes. PR has done its work, leaving every offended party speechless..