Summary 12-16 September

Not a good week for Connex with significant delays homeward bound for the first three days of the week. It goes without saying that none of these delays were announced by Connex, nor were they even acknowledged. So you can forget about apologies too.

So after this bad week, reds have slipped back up to 17%, orange is still 25% and green has dropped to 58%.

Mon 12/09	Tue 13/09	Wed 14/09	Thu 15/09	Fri 16/09
07:14	07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14
17:27	17:38	17:38	N/A	18:50
Mon 29/08	Tue 30/08	Wed 31/08	Thu 01/09	Fri 02/09
07:14	07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14
17:27	17:38	18:12	N/A	N/A
Mon 22/08	Tue 23/08	Wed 24/08	Thu 25/08	Fri 26/08
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	17:38	17:38	18:01	17:27
Mon 15/08	Tue 16/08	Wed 17/08	Thu 18/08	Fri 19/08
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	17:38	17:49	17:38	17:38
Mon 08/08	Tue 09/08	Wed 10/08	Thu 11/08	Fri 12/08
07:14	07:14	07:14	10:17	07:14
18:01	17:38	17:38	17:49	17:38
Mon 01/08	Tue 02/08	Wed 03/08	Thu 04/08	Fri 05/08
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	09:24
17:38	17:38	17:49	17:38	N/A
Mon 25/07	Tue 26/07	Wed 27/07	Thu 28/07	Fri 29/07
N/A	N/A	07:14	07:14	07:14
N/A	N/A	17:27	11:42	18:24
Mon 18/07	Tue 19/07	Wed 20/07	Thu 21/07	Fri 22/07
06:59	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	18:12	17:38	17:38	16:27
Mon 11/07	Tue 12/07	Wed 15/07	Thu 14/07	Fri 15/07
07:14	06:59	07:14	07:14	07:14
18:01	17:38	17:38	18:50	18:01
Mon 06/06	Tue 07/06	Wed 08/06	Thu 09/06	Fri 10/06
07:14	07:14	N/A	N/A	N/A
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Mon 30/05	Tue 31/05	Wed 01/06	Thu 02/06	Fri 03/06
08:39	07:14	07:14	06:59	05:40
17:49	17:49	18:12	18:24	18:12
Mon 23/05	Tue 24/05	Wed 25/05	Thu 26/05	Fri 27/05
07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14	07:14
17:38	18:24	N/A	17:49	17:38
Mon 16/05	Tue 17/05	Wed 18/05	Thu 19/05	Fri 20/05
07:14	12:47	06:59	N/A	07:14
17:38	17:38	17:38	N/A	17:38
Mon 09/05	Tue 10/05	Wed 11/05	Thu 12/05	Fri 13/05
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
18:01	17:38	18:01	18:12	18:35
Mon 02/05	Tue 03/05	Wed 04/05	Thu 05/05	Fri 06/05
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
16:37	17:38	17:38	17:38	18:50
Mon 25/04	Tue 26/04	Wed 27/04	Thu 28/04	Fri 29/04
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	09:11
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	17:38
Mon 18/04	Tue 19/04	Wed 20/04	Thu 21/04	Fri 22/04
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:49	17:38	17:38	17:38	17:38
Mon 11/04	Tue 12/04	Wed 13/04	Thu 14/04	Fri 15/04
07:14	07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14
17:38	17:27	17:27	N/A	19:35
Mon 04/04	Tue 05/04	Wed 06/04	Thu 07/04	Fri 08/04
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	17:38	17:38	17:27	17:38

Fri 16 September - Orange again...

Just over a minute behind leaving Ripponlea drifts out to three minutes late into Flinders Street after a wait in the yards.

Just going to Richmond in the evening, meeting up to go to the MCG - on the 18:50 and it's just about on time. I might have a sad little life, but at least I was there the night the mighty Swannies blasted the last eight goals straight to make it into their first Grand Final since 1996!

Thu 15 September - Day off...

Contrary to some of the opinions expressed in the comments section of this blog, I have quite a satisfying and challenging life beyond the daily commute experiences with Connex. Today I'm enjoying a day off and will be taking my family out for a fun day... see I'm not always sad either!

Wed 14 September - Oops...!

I can't believe with all the focus on whether I'm accurately recording times or not, I forgot this morning! I do know that we departed a few of the stations about two minutes late this morning, but I met somebody at Richmond so was not thinking about it when we got to Flinders Street. There's a bit of a buffer in the timetable so my guess is we would've only been a minute or so late. In order not to offend anybody, let's call this one a green.

Not so coming home. The doors closed at 17:38, then we sat for five minutes. People were madly pressing the button to open the doors but we just stared mutely at them. Eventually we left and the train pulled up at Ripponlea six minutes late, just as it did yesterday.

Tue 13 September - OK this morning...

On time this morning.

Seems a few people are not happy with yesterday's entry. Here's what I said... "The 07:14 arrives at Ripponlea late and pulls in later still after a wait alongside the tennis centre." At 07:11 the enquiry system advised the next train would be in five minutes. Sure enough it was 07:16 as the doors closed, so that was spot on. My watch is almost to the second accurate to the clocks on Flinders Street station.

I didn't time the delay at the tennis centre but I'd have guessed somewhere close to a minute, doesn't really matter. The fact is that I stepped off the train at 07:31, which is three minutes late. If Sparkdriver could get access to the CCTV footage from the station he could see himself pulling up at that time.

So tell me where I got any of that wrong.

But let's not confuse simple statements of facts, and these are facts, with any feelings I might have about all this. It doesn't ruin my day being three minutes late. I am not casting aspersions on anybody's competence by stating these facts. I am simply telling it like it is.

Yes it annoys me when trains are cancelled with no notice. But I blame the Connex administration for that. Sending an SMS alert to say that a train is cancelled after its scheduled departure time is slack - convince me otherwise. Having a train arrive at the platform at Flinders Street minutes after it was due to depart is slack - convince me otherwise. They're the issues that annoy me. So to answer Sparkdriver's question - the whingeing will stop when Connex management addresses these issues.

I checked my watch against the Flinders Street clocks again this evening. We concurred that it was 17:42:40 when the 17:38 departed with no apology for the delay. By my watch it was 17:57 when we disembarked at Ripponlea, six minutes late. Unfortunately there was no secondary source with which to check my time, so I have to leave that unverified. Since this blog is for my own purposes, I don't really give a toss what anybody else thinks anyway, I'm just stirring.

Mon 12 September - Back in sunny Melbourne...

Well OK, not really sunny, but neither was Perth.

The 07:14 arrives at Ripponlea late and pulls in later still after a wait alongside the tennis centre. Yeah, really good to be back!

Going home on the 17:27 that leaves at about 17:33 - we pull in to Ripponlea seven minutes late. And it's still raining... bet a weatherman on a commercial TV station tells us it's not falling in the catchment areas tonight!