Fri 9 June - Cancellations...

An early morning SMS alert that the 06:40 is cancelled gives me cause to go back through the inbox. There was one yesterday evening, but apart from that they're probably averaging one cancellation a week, which is quite an improvement over the pattern a year or so ago.

Unfortunately there are still frequent delays, as the stats attest, but they're not so bad. What still hasn't improved in the slightest is the woeful passenger information. Far too often we're left standing on the platform with no information about if or when to expect our train after its scheduled departure time. If they could just fix that...

Anyway we're on time this morning.

Blogger.com seems to be a bit intermittent lately - apologies if you're having trouble getting access and for the delay in my posting!

On time coming home too - on the 17:27.

Thu 8 June - Validated ticket area...

Just recently they've been tarting up the stations and they've put up signs saying "validated ticket area". Presumably these signs are there to suggest that we should not enter the platform without a validated ticket? Well they need to stick the next train information outside this "validated ticket area", because there are times when I want to know if there's a train coming fairly soon before I validate. That way if it's too long I have the choice to drive and not waste a ticket.

We're about three minutes late this morning.

And we're three minutes late on the 18:01 too.

Wed 7 June - Sydney...

I'm in Sydney for the day.

Tue 6 June - Beast's Day...

... Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 07:14...

OK, it's not been too bad lately, but that's probably putting the moz on it. Not sure I've been on it that much in recent weeks, so how would I know?!

We're three minutes late this morning.

Home on the 17:49 - as is often the case the departure time rolls on past with no sign of the train and no word from the ever friendly platform announcer. It shows up soon after and we wait a fair while before we depart. We pull in to Ripponlea six minutes late.

Mon 5 June - Uh duh...

At the doctor's this morning so I have another late start to to the day.

The 10:04 is about a minute late at Ripponlea this morning. Which means that if it had been on time the silly woman who dodged the crossing gates and ran right in front of the train would've missed it altogether.

So here's a tip for you - check the timetable and allow more time. Or if you can't be bothered then just accept that you'll miss the occasional train. Either way, it ain't worth risking your life for. Besides if you did kill yourself then we'd be even later!

Home on the 18:24 and it's more or less on time.

Summary 29 May-2 June

With only three trips this week the stats haven't changed much. The six week trend is showing trains that are on time are still only 58%, late 29% and very late/cancelled 13%. Have a look at the graph, it's a very long way from Connex' rosy picture!

http://www.connexwhinger.com/stats.html

(As it happens I went to the Connex website to see what their latest fairy tale figures were and the site was down - those PDP-11s must be struggling again!)