Summary 5-9 December

This week was a big improvement over last week, with only one red and one orange. That pulls us back to 61% green, 23% orange and 16% red. Fortunately the bloke at the top, Bruce Hughes, assured us in a recent open letter that we have his personal commitment that he's working hard to make things better. So that's OK then!

Mon 05/12	Tue 06/12	Wed 07/12	Thu 08/12	Fri 09/12
07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14	07:14
17:49	18:50	18:01	N/A	17:07
Mon 28/11	Tue 29/11	Wed 30/11	Thu 01/12	Fri 02/12
07:14	07:14	07:14	N/A	07:14
18:35	18:35	18:35	N/A	17:49
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 9 December - Hung over...

Still manage to make the 07:14, despite being hung over. It was a big night with the Connex Whinger appearing as the man in the red and white suit. And no problem getting a taxi either!

Home on the 17:07, it's on time.

Thu 8 December - Fare's fair...?

Surely this cannot be? After a year of incompetent Connex management we're going to be paying even more for this appalling "service" after 1 January next year. How about a moratorium on price rises until they actually start to deliver a reliable service Batchelor?

Having said that, the 07:14 is on time again today.

I may need to start a taxiwhinger blog after tonight's office party. Melbourne taxis are copping some flak over inadequate numbers at night, especially coming up to Christmas. Maybe I can make the last Sandy train?

Wed 7 December - No free tickets...

Seems I need to read things more carefully... Not only do you need to have MORE THAN three cancellations of the same train within a week, you also have to validate your ticket each time within half an hour of the scheduled departure time, then you only get one free ticket, not two.

So let's have a closer look at this. Four days out of five your regular train has to be cancelled. Having experienced four cancellations in six days, I struggle to imagine how angry I'd be if that were more frequent. Would a single $3.10 ticket compensate me for having lost God knows how much extra time due to their incompetence? It's not appropriate to publish my hourly rate here, but I would be looking for something in the region of $100 for my lost time - $3.10 just doesn't quite do it for me!

Then you need to look a little more closely at the validation requirement. OK, we're on a line with trains every 10-12 minutes in peak hour, but what about those people on a line where they're 20 minutes apart? Your 07:00 is cancelled, you wisely decide to let the 07:20 go as it'll be a double trainload, so you catch the 07:40 - bzzzt, no free tickets for you, sucker!

So my guess is nobody will ever make a claim under this rule. Here's the challenge Connex and Batchelor - build your compensation payments around peak hour trains only. Give ALL OF US, whatever ticket type we have, compensation when peak hour trains drop below 90%, as measured by my slightly less generous method. Then we'll see some real progress.

The 07:14 is on time, by the way!

The 18:01 is about three minutes late at Ripponlea.

Tue 6 December - Free tickets...?

I wonder if anybody has claimed their free tickets? Somebody posted a comment yesterday about three cancellations in a week entitling eligible ticket holders to two free daily tickets. It's about half-way down on this page (click here). Since I seem to rarely use the train for the whole week, my preference is to use daily tickets, since a five pack costs the same as a weekly there's no downside to this - except it does mean I can't claim their compensation tickets.

Anyway for those who do use a weekly or a monthly, go for it!

The 07:14 is more or less on time today.

Get to the entrance at the bottom of Elizabeth Street at about 18:40, the board shows the next train is the 19:05... What the...?! Ask the customer service bloke and he knows nothing and doesn't have anyone to ask. Another lady is wanting the same information, after he fails to provide it, she heads off to catch a tram.

I head around to the Swanston Street entrance and ask the customer service woman... same response. She suggests going up to the Stationmaster's office. She insists the main sign board is correct. I ask why the clock under the entrance says the next train is the 18:50. She says that’s old and is no good. My instinct says otherwise! I think back to a very similar incident ( on 28 July as it happens) when the sign boards were wrong and the old clock was right.

So I decide to head over to platform 8 before going to queue up to ask the Stationmaster. With a minute to spare I get there. There’s a train on platform 8, the monitor advises that it is indeed the 18:50 to Sandringham. Why aren’t the sign boards telling us this? Why don’t the customer service people know? Why don’t they have any way of finding out? Why are Connex so damned incompetent? And how many other would-be passengers, like the lady mentioned earlier, did not catch this train because Connex are too pathetic to update their signs?

Mon 5 December - Four out of six...

Could that be true? Four times in six days the 07:14 is cancelled. What the hell is going on at Connex? After last week's delivery of the worst "service" recorded in this blog, they're starting off in the same way this week. At least the SMS alert came through just in time.

At least the 17:49 is pretty much on time.