Thu 23 March - Planes or trains...?
There's been quite a few ideas bandied around since the weekend. And one of the obvious problems that's not really been clearly stated is that Connex is not Qantas, nor should it be operating like it is. This crystallised in my mind after some private email exchanges with Chris/The Met and reading that Qantas is looking at buying into the Toll/Patrick rail operations if that merger goes ahead. Here's the link to that story.
Just think about it... Qantas is all about maximising profits for shareholders, like all good businesses should be. One of the biggest factors in achieving this is ensuring that as many seats as possible are sold for as much as possible on every aeroplane that flies. Can you imagine applying the same approach to Connex?
This is the fundamental problem with a privatised public transport system. If we really want it to work then we have to accept that it cannot be a profitable business. It needs to be heavily subsidised by the whole community. It's a basic service, just like Medicare, and should be funded in a similar manner. It needs a massive injection of public funds. The billion plus that was spent on Spencer Street, sorry Southern Cross, is an absolute joke. It utterly disgusts me to think how that money could've been used to actually provide some decent service to commuters. Now all we have is a legacy to the worst Transport Minister in history. Batchelor you are a pathetic weasel!
The 06:59 is pretty much on time.
Home again on the pushie.
Just think about it... Qantas is all about maximising profits for shareholders, like all good businesses should be. One of the biggest factors in achieving this is ensuring that as many seats as possible are sold for as much as possible on every aeroplane that flies. Can you imagine applying the same approach to Connex?
This is the fundamental problem with a privatised public transport system. If we really want it to work then we have to accept that it cannot be a profitable business. It needs to be heavily subsidised by the whole community. It's a basic service, just like Medicare, and should be funded in a similar manner. It needs a massive injection of public funds. The billion plus that was spent on Spencer Street, sorry Southern Cross, is an absolute joke. It utterly disgusts me to think how that money could've been used to actually provide some decent service to commuters. Now all we have is a legacy to the worst Transport Minister in history. Batchelor you are a pathetic weasel!
The 06:59 is pretty much on time.
Home again on the pushie.
posted by Connex Whinger at 7:45 pm
6 Comments:
Connex is'nt QANTAS, nor cannot really have the same basis of operation as youve mentioned.
You've stated that the network, needs funding not by it's operations but widespread. "Whole community." Hey we always could use our money from taxes, raise it slightly, and fund it for railways, not projects like Eastlink.
Rowville and Doncaster remain corridors open for a high amount of opporunity for profit, but of course the government, has dedicated the funding elsewhere.
Although i see projects like Southern Cross as a milestone. Personally Batchelor perhaps is better. We see rail line re-opened because they were closed by previous Kennett and earlier governments. Regional fast rail.
All those years ago, we didn't have to spend on the granduer of Melbourne, "Flinders Street." We could of easily made another rail-line. But it's too late.
I find a problem is that Connex have to pay the DOI for late services. Is that really helping?
Dear Whinger,
I have just re-read your comments from Mon 6 March and Thursday 23 February 2006.
With the benefit of hindsight you suggest that Connex should have made the 1801 departure on Platform 12 into the 1749 departure on Platform 8 and vis versa.
The 1749 departure should precede an 1801 departure and no doubt had the signals to do just that.
The 1749 departure was obviously loaded first, and for some reason unknown to you, delayed.
So you think it obvious that the trains should be swapped over AND ALL THE PASSENGERS MOVED TO Platform 12 first.
It should be obvious even to you that Connex had reasonable expectations that the delayed 1749 departure would leave some time before 1801 which according to you is EXACTLY what happened !
You instead seem to think that the reverse should have happened, and if it did you would then pillory Connex for doing just that !
As a Software developer presumably all of your Software is right and faultless first time, i think not.
Regards from a person who does suffer fools gladly.
The met - some interesting points there. I believe wholeheartedly that our taxes should be used to improve the system - can you imagine what could be done if we spent as much money on PT as we do roads?!?!? That's the whole problem though - the road lobby has powerful people behind it because roads are directly related to business. Although there is rail freight, the main use of metro rail is us commuters and it seems we will continue to pay to use the system to get to work even when the system itself is sub par, so not much reason there to appease us with funding. I think the only reason rail has received so much focus of late is that even with all that funding, the roads are chaos during peak, and petrol prices on top of that are making a lot of people look for alternatives. As far as I know, something like this hasn't happened in a long time.
Cheers,
Sam
Anon (2nd poster) - you probably need to brush up on your reading skills... How can the 17:49 not have appeared but the 18:01 is sitting here ready to go?. That might give you an indication that the 17:49 had not appeared - ie it was NOT on the platform fully loaded. It was nowhere in sight.
So armed with this piece of information, please rejustify your position.
Home on the 3.27pm from Southern Cross to Greensborough. The train departs SC at 3.32pm with no announcement as to the train's lateness. Pulls into Greensborough at 4.12pm, four minutes behind schedule.
To the dear whinger person:-
I was on that train that your talking about and it was not on the platform and only came in just before 6 about 10 mins late. When I got on I saw a train on the far platform and thought it might be a Sandringham train but thought I'd better get on this one just in case. You might guess that I was not real happy when I found out from connex whinger the other one was also a sandringham train and was waiting for ages and they didn't tell us it was there. So your just plain wrong like most people who say Connex are good.
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