Mon 18 April - Mondayitis again...
Again we're off to a pretty good start, the 07:14 is within a minute this morning.
The slight frustration was neither of the ticket validators would work on my ticket. Whenever this happens you get that uncomfortable feeling that if the jack-booted inspectors appear they won't believe you. I'm one of the most honest people I know - I don't think I've ever knowingly travelled on public transport without a valid ticket. Yet I'm left feeling vaguely uneasy because I'm technically travelling illegally as both the machines were playing up. The lady at Flinders Street simply shrugged and signed the ticket.
Coming home is not so good. At 17:20 we're SMSed that the 17:27 is cancelled - again! Against my better judgement I stick around and leave the sweaty hordes to fight over the oxygen and floor space on the 17:38. Head down for the 17:49 and there's a train already on platform 9... good old Connex. Except the monitor helpfully tells us it's the 17:44 to a destination of "not taking passengers" wherever that is. But the little bit at the bottom tells us the next train is the 17:49 to Sandringham. It's 17:48 and the platform 13 announcement crackles through the tannoys. The herd of wildebeests sweeps majestically across the plain - well races up the stairs anyway. Platform 13 - no train. Maybe the controllers and drivers are playing their games again and back on platform 9 the 17:44 to not taking passengers metamorphosed into the 17:49 to Sandringham while we were heading in the other direction.
Anyway, after a minute or two the 17:49 arrives. We all hop in. And we wait. Eventually at 17:56 we head off. So seven minutes late, no big tick for Connex there. Somehow we leave Richmond eight minutes late and manage to lose a couple more minutes so we're at Ripponlea over 10 minutes late. Needless to say by then we've picked up a good many of the people who'd been aiming for the 18:01 so we're pretty chokkas most of the way. Did I mention it was one of the new trains and the aircon wasn't working? Yeah thanks for the sweaty armpits in the face fellas. I was a bit preoccupied so didn't think to hand out complaint forms tonight - slipping there.
Managed to grab a photo of the train as it pulled out of Ripponlea...
The slight frustration was neither of the ticket validators would work on my ticket. Whenever this happens you get that uncomfortable feeling that if the jack-booted inspectors appear they won't believe you. I'm one of the most honest people I know - I don't think I've ever knowingly travelled on public transport without a valid ticket. Yet I'm left feeling vaguely uneasy because I'm technically travelling illegally as both the machines were playing up. The lady at Flinders Street simply shrugged and signed the ticket.
Coming home is not so good. At 17:20 we're SMSed that the 17:27 is cancelled - again! Against my better judgement I stick around and leave the sweaty hordes to fight over the oxygen and floor space on the 17:38. Head down for the 17:49 and there's a train already on platform 9... good old Connex. Except the monitor helpfully tells us it's the 17:44 to a destination of "not taking passengers" wherever that is. But the little bit at the bottom tells us the next train is the 17:49 to Sandringham. It's 17:48 and the platform 13 announcement crackles through the tannoys. The herd of wildebeests sweeps majestically across the plain - well races up the stairs anyway. Platform 13 - no train. Maybe the controllers and drivers are playing their games again and back on platform 9 the 17:44 to not taking passengers metamorphosed into the 17:49 to Sandringham while we were heading in the other direction.
Anyway, after a minute or two the 17:49 arrives. We all hop in. And we wait. Eventually at 17:56 we head off. So seven minutes late, no big tick for Connex there. Somehow we leave Richmond eight minutes late and manage to lose a couple more minutes so we're at Ripponlea over 10 minutes late. Needless to say by then we've picked up a good many of the people who'd been aiming for the 18:01 so we're pretty chokkas most of the way. Did I mention it was one of the new trains and the aircon wasn't working? Yeah thanks for the sweaty armpits in the face fellas. I was a bit preoccupied so didn't think to hand out complaint forms tonight - slipping there.
Managed to grab a photo of the train as it pulled out of Ripponlea...
posted by Connex Whinger at 7:30 pm
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