Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Day 14 Blogtoberfest 2009 I have serious train issues

Melbourne trains suck ... as if having to go to work isn't bad enough Melbournites have to battle the train service as well.


The sign directing passengers to the Frankston, Dandenong etc line at Flinders Street. Guess which day I took this photo?

And I'm not alone in Melbourne ... we have two regular topics of conversation in the mornings: the weather (because we get four seasons in one day!)and the train service (or lack therof!).

In point of fact, problems are now so bad you only have to say I had a train experience on the way to work and instant explanation re why you're late ... you don't have to say anything else.

And just to show things don't occur on an infrequent basis, these are my train experiences over the last fortnight (PS some of my negative experiences are self inflicted, and in the interests of honesty I'll add those in ... but Connex is pretty darn annoying).

* The train I planned to catch to get to work was cancelled (them) so I caught the next train after that, which was running 10 minutes late (them). The train ended up sitting outside another station for quite a while, with the result it took me 90 minutes after I arrived at the station to actually reach work (definitely them!).
* On the way home from work I woke up as the train was pulling out of my station (me). I got off at the next station to wait for the next train heading home. The first train went straight through without picking up passengers and the train I caught was five minutes late (them).
* A train at Moorabbin broke down with everybody from that train piling onto my train (them). Around Ormond there was an announcement re overhead problems at Caulfield and I arrived 30 minutes late at work because we crawled the whole way from Ormond to my stop at Melbourne Central (them).
* I got off the train at Richmond because it wasn't going to my station in the loop only to get on another train not going to my station (me). What an idiot!

I'm hoping Metro Trains Melbourne, which takes over from the beginning of December, does a better job ... definitely not an issue to hold my breath over.

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