Summary 21-25 November

It's been a few months since we've had a whole week with under half the trains being on time. It really looked like things were picking up a month or two ago, but clearly Connex reliability is heading backwards. SMS alerts seem to have been suspended for about a month, but there's signs of life in the system towards the end of the week. This is symptomatic of their biggest problem, lack of information to customers.

Surely one of the most frustrating aspects of the so-called service they provide is that they haven't got the common courtesy to let people know what's going on. You're standing there on the platform as departure time approaches, the train is nowehere in sight, so it's fairly obvious that it will not be leaving as scheduled. So you stand there waiting and wondering, will it show or will they announce its cancellation? The clock ticks off the minutes and there's still no sign and no word from the Fat Controller.

So you're now wondering if these buffoons in charge even know where the trains are. Surely if the train is on its way from Sandringham, as was the case yesterday evening, they had a pretty fair idea where it was. At its scheduled departure time it was actually somewhere between South Yarra and Richmond presumably. So they know it's late but stubbornly refuse to tell us. Why?

Anyway, the stats bear out the perception, greens have slipped to 62%, oranges increased to 23% and reds are still 15%. Let's just remind ourselves that that still represents around ONE in SEVEN trains that I've been planning to catch have been cancelled or significantly delayed!

Mon 21/11	Tue 22/11	Wed 23/11	Thu 24/11	Fri 25/11
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	10:47
17:49	17:27	18:01	17:38	18:01
Mon 07/11	Tue 08/11	Wed 09/11	Thu 10/11	Fri 11/11
08:49	N/A	N/A	N/A	08:49
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	18:12
Mon 31/10	Tue 01/11	Wed 02/11	Thu 03/11	Fri 04/11
07:14	N/A	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	N/A	17:38	17:27	17:49
Mon 24/10	Tue 25/10	Wed 26/10	Thu 27/10	Fri 28/10
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:38	17:38	17:38	17:38	17:07
Mon 17/10	Tue 18/10	Wed 19/10	Thu 20/10	Fri 21/10
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:49	18:24	17:38	17:17	18:12
Mon 10/10	Tue 11/10	Wed 12/10	Thu 13/10	Fri 14/10
07:14	07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14
18:12	18:24	17:38	N/A	17:38
Mon 03/10	Tue 04/10	Wed 05/10	Thu 06/10	Fri 07/10
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	09:49
N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	17:38
Mon 26/09	Tue 27/09	Wed 28/09	Thu 29/09	Fri 30/09
N/A	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
N/A	17:38	18:01	18:01	18:24
Mon 19/09	Tue 20/09	Wed 21/09	Thu 22/09	Fri 23/09
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	06:59
16:57	N/A	17:38	18:01	N/A
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 25 November - Late...

A late start today after going to the doctor this morning... seems the pneumonia is pretty much under control, so that's good.

On the 10:47, which rolls in about three minutes late - can't even run to time during off peak!

Didn't ring Connex about SMS today as the alerts seemed to be working again this morning.

Just missed the 17:49, so waiting for the 18:01. And waiting and waiting. As usual, the departure time comes and goes and there's no announcement from Connex to keep us informed. They manage to find 100 plus staff to manage the farcical one-way experiment, but nobody to simply let passengers know what's going on. Get a clue Connex!

It eventually arrives at about 18:06 and we depart a minute or so later. Chockers again, but we're used to that. We pull up at Ripponlea around seven minutes late, hot and cranky. Connex you are really hopeless. But I know people are dying, so it's OK to keep running a shoddy service (see Tuesday's blog).

Thu 24 November - Just about OK...

The 07:14 just sneaks in before 07:30, narrowly avoiding an orange.

However going home is a different kettle of fish... clearly the 17:27 has been cancelled, since the 17:38 is absolutely chockers. And no SMS alert was issued. We arrive at Ripponlea about three minutes late.

Memo to self - ring Connex tomorrow and ask when the SMS alert service is going to be reinstated.

Wed 23 November - Normality...

The 07:14 is on time. And Flinders Street is back to normal. Let's hope that they're big enough to admit that their approach is utterly hopeless and they'll reconsider this one-way nonsense.

Oops, I thought I updated the blog for the homeward journey but clearly didn't! Home on the 18:01 and it's on time.

Tue 22 November - Gimme strength...!

I swear there's a bunch of people in Connex whose sole purpose is to dream up new things for me to whinge about! OK, maybe that's a little self-centred, but some days you just have to wonder...

This morning we're trialling the one-way system in preparation for the Commonwealth Games. If I needed encouragement to consider taking those two weeks off and heading interstate, this was a big tick in that box. We're all forced to go through one exit instead of the several that we generally have available, so of course we're all milling around at the escalator taking ages to finally get off the platform. We then have to all queue up at the barriers to get out, along with several other trainloads of people. What the hell will this be like at peak hour today? God only knows. Somehow this is meant to be more efficient, but I would really like to see how they're measuring this and what conclusions they draw from this pathetic experiment.

They seem to be thinking that the massive flows of people in one direction will somehow work better than the current entry/exit from all points. How? It seems to me to work fine at peak hour just the way it is - they're hardly likely to increase passenger numbers, since by their own admission, they are running at capacity. It's not as if many more people will be passing through Flinders Street than we generally get during peak hour anyway. What a complete and utter waste of time!

And it's the same going home - instead of simply going in the normal entrance at the bottom of Elizabeth Street we have to head down to the main entrance. What are you cretins trying to achieve with this? So there's a bunch of blokes blocking the entrance and, in my usual fashion, I say in a very loud voice "What a waste of time for everybody". To which one of our Connex people replies "You're bothered about this, there's people dying you know". Well thanks for that insight, Einstein. Can we conclude from that comment that Connex should be able to do anything they want since nothing they could do could every be as bad as people dying?!

Anyway, the 17:27 ends up being about eight minutes late, it's crowded and the aircon seems to be malfunctioning again. Looking forward to those 40° days being locked into one of the new trains with no aircon and double the passenger load. But at least that weasel Batchelor thinks it's all OK - though how he'd know in his government funded limo I'm not sure.

Mon 21 November - Back again...

After a week of pneumonia I'm fit enough for work, even if not quite ready for Connex! The 07:14 runs a few minutes late this morning.

And the 17:49 is a couple of minutes late this evening.

Still no SMS messages...