Mon 9 May - Ominous start...

At 06:05 I get the first SMS advising a cancellation. The second one comes at 07:00, just as I walk out the door. Luckily neither was for the 07:14... phew! So it arrives and it's one of those old rattly ones with the slide-down windows. I'm thinking that's probably a last minute ring-in for one of the new ones that's defective, so we should be grateful. Anyway an otherwise uneventful start.

Later we get an SMS to advise a third Monday morning cancellation. Let's hope that this is not a portent for the rest of the week after such great performance last week.

Just call me Nostradamus! I'm a bit later getting away, so I head down for the 18:01. Waiting waiting waiting. Nothing. No announcement. Platform 13 - out of site, out of mind. Supposedly the 18:01 is going from platform 13 and the 18:12 from platform 12. Still nothing. 18:12 passes and that one's not there either. 18:15 and finally the 18:01 arrives and departs a minute or so later. There's a feeble announcement apologising for the late departure. Yeah but why didn't you keep us informed? And where was our SMS advising the train was more than 10 minutes late? The thing was coming in from Sandy, surely you knew exactly where it was? So why didn't you tell us?! Needless to say nobody was prepared to wait around to see if the 18:12 would run, so all 17,346 of us crammed into the 18:01. Not surprisingly, I had no shortage of takers for complaint forms when we all burst out at Ripponlea. And it's no big surprise when the 18:12 rolls in two minutes later almost empty.