Trains made you late for work? Liar!

It is pretty easy to blame public transport for being late to work. It is plausible, hard to disprove, and able to cover just about any delay under two hours.

It is pretty easy to blame public transport for being late to work. It is plausible, hard to disprove, and able to cover just about any delay under two hours.

It may come as no surprise, then, that many people find it hard to resist the temptation to blame trains when they are late, even if that isn’t the reason why.

Over 40% of 60 travellers surveyed at Flinders St train station in Melbourne by RMIT University researchers admitted they have called work, family or friends and lied about their train being late, with the figure rising to 55% for 18 to 25 year olds.

It seems the over 60s are the only ones you can really trust, with only 17% of people surveyed in that age bracket admitting to a public transport porky.

“We think this might be because the older group are more likely to be retired, whereas younger people often face great pressure at work, so they could be more likely to resort to this tactic,” RMIT researcher Marsha Berry says.