Tue 20 August - Jekyll and Hyde...
I've worked it out... the morning trains are Dr Jekyll while the evening trains are Mr Hyde.
I'm still angry about yesterday evening - leave early to get home early and actually get there later than usual. I forgot to mention that the SMS arrived just after 17:27, a full seven minutes after I saw the sign at the entrance advising that it was not running - who knows how long it was up there before I arrived, so how long before that did they know?
A further postscript on this - seems the following train was delayed by about 11 minutes, suggesting it would've resembled the Mumbai to New Delhi all stations special with three trainloads trying to cram in. Presumably the 17:49 was delayed too. Slightly ironic, given that there was an article in The Age today about overcrowding on Connex trains.
I wonder if we can go Connex for false advertising? I think I'll give it a try. Their posters clearly suggest that they will let you know with plenty of notice so you don't waste time waiting around at the station - clearly they don't always achieve this, and sometimes you can understand why. But when they know the train's not running, failing to send the SMS alert until long after cannot be so readily explained.
I'm sure it comes as no surprise that there's confusion on platform 8 again this evening. There's a train on the platform, allegedly the 17:30 Frankston. It's still sitting there several minutes after its scheduled departure time. Why? No announcement is forthcoming. The monitor suggests the next rain is the 17:38 to Sandringham, but of course we've no reason to believe that.
Anyway the Frankston train departs unannounced at about 17:36. A few people had raced down the escalators and jumped aboard without looking. I wonder how many think they are getting on the Sandy train and get a bit of a shock when the train heads off towards Spencer Street!
Our train comes in a minute or two later and we head of a couple of minutes late. We manage to lose more time (as often happens when the train's crowded) so we get to Ripponlea four minutes late.
I'm still angry about yesterday evening - leave early to get home early and actually get there later than usual. I forgot to mention that the SMS arrived just after 17:27, a full seven minutes after I saw the sign at the entrance advising that it was not running - who knows how long it was up there before I arrived, so how long before that did they know?
A further postscript on this - seems the following train was delayed by about 11 minutes, suggesting it would've resembled the Mumbai to New Delhi all stations special with three trainloads trying to cram in. Presumably the 17:49 was delayed too. Slightly ironic, given that there was an article in The Age today about overcrowding on Connex trains.
I wonder if we can go Connex for false advertising? I think I'll give it a try. Their posters clearly suggest that they will let you know with plenty of notice so you don't waste time waiting around at the station - clearly they don't always achieve this, and sometimes you can understand why. But when they know the train's not running, failing to send the SMS alert until long after cannot be so readily explained.
I'm sure it comes as no surprise that there's confusion on platform 8 again this evening. There's a train on the platform, allegedly the 17:30 Frankston. It's still sitting there several minutes after its scheduled departure time. Why? No announcement is forthcoming. The monitor suggests the next rain is the 17:38 to Sandringham, but of course we've no reason to believe that.
Anyway the Frankston train departs unannounced at about 17:36. A few people had raced down the escalators and jumped aboard without looking. I wonder how many think they are getting on the Sandy train and get a bit of a shock when the train heads off towards Spencer Street!
Our train comes in a minute or two later and we head of a couple of minutes late. We manage to lose more time (as often happens when the train's crowded) so we get to Ripponlea four minutes late.
posted by Connex Whinger at 7:45 pm
3 Comments:
The SMS for the cancelled 18:12 last night also failed to materialise. This was my 1st day for the SMS alerts. Not a great start!
Sounds like you had a bad one. Sometimes the SMS works well and you get over an hour's notice. Another time, the cancellation was announced at the station 15 mins beforehand, but the SMS only arrived 30 mins after the train was due to leave.
There's actually a note in the terms and conditions of the SMS brochure that SMS is not a reliable method of communication and it may go AWOL at any point. Read more carefully.
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