Consider this blog to be an earnest petition to the Minister for Transport, as well as a memo to the various transport operators. Thank you for visiting.
To maintain its credibility, please be factual and honest when you add a comment about your own experience. Copy and paste the following format when posting your comment:
Date of poor service experience:
Time:
Bus/Tram/Train:
Route number:
Going to:
Name of service provider:
Scheduled time of service:
What happened:
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11 comments:
Date of poor service experience: 19/04/07
Time: 6:55pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Murrumbeena Station
Route number: Pakenham Line
Going to: Caulfield
Name of service provider: ?
Scheduled time of service: 6:55pm
What happened: I got to the station 3 minutes before my train, only to get there and find the train was running 17 minutes late. I'm a female in my early 20's, I was by myself and rightfully concerned about my safety. I called Metlink to complain and the lady told me to hold onto my ticket and I might get it refunded. But it's not about the money. It's about getting where I need to go on time and safely. I had to catch two trains during peak hour to get to Murrumbeena and they were both late and incredibly crowded. I pay for my ticket and would assume that entitles me to a punctual, comfortable service. Apparently not.
Date of poor service experience:
Time: Wed 18th April 2007
Bus/Tram/Train: Train
Route number: Sydenham-City
Leaving from: Tottenham
Going to: Parliament
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service: 7:56
What happened:
The 7:29 Sydenham train was cancelled, which then caused the next train (7:39) to run 10 minutes late, by the time the train arrived at Tottenham it was at full capacity. I had to force my way onto the train much to the horror of the passengers on the already over crowded train, only to witness that the other 90% of commuters that has been patiently waiting for the train to arrive are now stranded at Tottenham, with the thought that the next train will not be anymore accommodating as "peak hour" time really sets in. I then felt grate compassion for hundreds the commuters at West Footscray, Middle Footscray, Footscray and North Melbourne that are now also stranded; I also felt completely resentful towards Connex, Minister for Transport, Lynne Kosky who’s care factor on this common occurrence is zero, and the Victorian Government for treating people in our wonderful state as 3rd class citizens, who apparently have no right to a comfortable, clean, customer focused transport system, that would reflect a prosperous country and state. Not a 3rd world Country!
Date of poor service experience: 20 April
Time:8:00am
Bus/Tram/Train: Clifton Hill
Route number:
Going to: to City
Name of service provider:
Scheduled time of service:
What happened:
The Minister for Roads, Miss Kosky, should have been on the city band platform at Cliftonhill station this morning. That would have opened her eyes. I sat patiently, and then not so patiently, as five trains passed me by between 8:08 and 8:30 completely jampacked and unable to take passengers at this major suburb which relies on the train service. This made me late for work, and I was amongst at least a hundred people in the same boat (though actually if we had been aboard a boat we might have been at work quicker). She might have been interested that no single announcement was made - perhaps this is normal service? What is the point in us doing the right thing, and trying to reduce our emissions if the government won't force Connex to lay on more trains. If they can't come from Epping or Hurstbridge because of the lines, why not simply start the train at Cliftonhill, where the big logjams are?
Date of poor service experience:
Time: Wed 18th April 2007
Bus/Tram/Train: Train
Route number: Sydenham-City
Leaving from: Tottenham
Going to: Parliament
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service: 7:56
What happened: (part two)
The 7:29 Sydenham train was cancelled, which then caused the next train (7:39) to run 10 minutes late. When at Parliament
I then approached the Customer Service window, with the intention of requesting information for Connex complaints procedure from the Male Officer behind the window, when I was rudely told (I would say asked) to go to the next window on the opposite side of the partition, which would mean I would join the long queue already waiting for bad service. I did not agree with this request as what is the purpose of having the window open on the "other" side if the window can not be used? The Female Ticket Inspector on the other side of the station then yelled out to me "WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!”. Connex; Could I suggest some training on customer service, perhaps an opening comment should start with: Can I help you? In a friendly and helpful tone… I dare not dream.
Date of poor service experience: 18/04/07
Time: approx 5:45 pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Lilydale Line
Going to: Blackburn
Name of service provdier: Connex
What happened: I arrived at Parliament Station Platform 4 just as a train was coming in. The indicator showed it was a Lilydale line train. I boarded the train and started reading. A couple of stops later I heard an announcement "Next station is Heyington" which is on the Glen Waverly line, not on the Lilydale line. I, and a number of others, got off. We all agreed that the indicator was wrong at Parliament and had to swap platforms and wait for the next train back to Richmond. At Richmond we had to swap platforms to Platform 9. The indicator showed the next train was Glen Waverley. After a few minutes it changed to "Lilydale". A train came in but showed Glen Waverley on the front and sides. There was a (live) announcement saying that the train was going to "Lilydale". However on checking with passengers in the carriage it appeared it WAS a Glen Waverley train. A number of people boarded it and also would have gone to the wrong line. I rang Connex Richmond Rly Stn from the platform and spoke to the Station guy. He advised that "the computers are not giving us the correct information and consequently the indicators are wrong too". I suggested strongly that they tell people that over the loud speaker! He then turned off the indicator (good idea as it was useless) and made an announcement to the confused passengers on Platform 9. We eventually got the correct train but it doesn't give you much confidence about safety etc if "computers are down" and trains are not going where the Connex staff think they are! Hope the signals aren't operated by the same computers. And by the way, whilst we were waiting (and waiting) there was another announcement, apologising "to those people who missed the TRARALGON train because of a late platform change". Can you image just missing the train home to Traralgon because of a platform change that you're not told about in time? What a joke.
Date of poor service experience: 19/04/07
Time: 7:33 pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Box Hill Rly Station
Going to: Ringwood
Scheduled time of service: 7:33
What happened: The indicator showed the next train was the 7:33 Ringwood Line train, to be followed by the 7:35 Belgrave Train. A train came in at 7:36 (late) but showed Belgrave on the front and the sides. However the indicator still showed it was a Ringwood train, and the public announcement came over and also said it was a Ringwood Train. This is the second time this week I have had conflicting advice about where a train is going. Nobody seems to know what's going on. If I needed to go all the way to Belgrave would I board this train? Or would I only get taken to Ringwood, and then miss the Belgrave train? Luckily the train drivers seem to have a clue! Maybe THEY could make the announcements about where they're going!
Date of poor service experience: 14/04/07
Time: 6:00pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Train
Route number: Belgrave
Going to: Belgrave
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service: 6:00pm
What happened: The connecting train from Ringwood to Belgrave at 6:00pm didn't run and there was no announcement explaining this. There were about 300 people (footy and normal Saturday peak hour crowd)waiting at Ringwood for 20 minutes and we then had to squeeze onto the already crowded next train from the city. The electronic board at Southern Cross wasn't working, so that when we waited 20 minutes for the 5:13 Lilydale train we didn't know there wouldn't be a connecting train. All trains involved were filled to capacity with many people standing and squished in. This train line is almost always crowded and needs many more trains to satisfy existing demand.
Date of poor service experience: 20/4/2007
Time: 7:25am
Train: Epping Line
Going to: City
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service: 7:25am
What happened: The 7:25am train from Epping was cancelled so naturally, the next train 15 minutes later would be expected to take double it's already struggling full load on a normal day. 5 stations into it's journey, no other commuters could fit into the train. Here's a thought: if a train is cancelled why dosn't the next one run as a limited express once it is full? Commuters needing to get off at one of the bypassed stations could be informed to disembark prior to that bypassed station and the train could potentially end up on time on arrival in the city rather than 15 minutes late waiting for everyone to get on when stopping all stations while there is absolutely no room. You won't be able to please everyone, but at least other trains won't also be held up and commuters in suburbs closer to the city won't need to miss 4-5 trains before there is space for them to catch one. At least the driver was apologetic.
Date of poor service experience: two weeks ago
Time: during the day
Bus/Tram/Train: Antstey Station
Route number: Upfield Line
Going to: city
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service:
Funny how all the posts thus far are related to Connex...anyhow, moving right along...
On the Upfield line, I was surrounded by some spaced-out people breathing deeply into plastic bags and stinking of Posca pens. I realised what was going on and looked up to give them a blast, I caught the sinister, crazed experession on all their faces and hastily moved up the train. Everyone else was quite freaked out too.
I thought there were cameras in every carriage designed to pick up on this kind of stuff??
Date of poor service experience: last week
Time: nighttimme - about 7pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Anstey Stn
Route number: Upfield Line
Going to: city
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service:
Going past Jewell station, as the train was still moving, someone chucked a rock through the train window not so far from my head. With glass everywhere, it was amazing that no-one was injured.
Everyone in the carriage agreed that the Connex employees wouldn't be in the slightest bit interested in knowing about this, as we'd all had issues with staff before.
When I reported this at Flinders St, the guy said 'oh yeah. Which line? Oh.' And kept checking tickets. Great service.
My two cents:
If we still had manned stations, the likelihood of things like this happening would be much less.
The staff member didn't even ask if anyone was hurt.
Date of poor service experience: Thursday 19th April
Time: arvo - about 5pm
Bus/Tram/Train: Flinders St
Route number: Upfield Line
Going to: Anstrey stn
Name of service provider: Connex
Scheduled time of service:
As the train was about to leave Flinders St, there was a small explosion by the door, WITH SPARKS. The power went down in the train, and everyone was locked in. No explanation from staff. A few moments later, the power came up and the train headed off INTO THE LOOP. Like, underground. This happened again TWICE, again, no explanation.
We were not told if this would be a problem or not, (indeed we were not told anything at all) and therefore no-one was given the option of getting off the train if they felt unsafe.
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