- 8:08am Sandringham to city service cancelled.
- Metro sends an SMS cancellation notice for the 8:08am service at 8:37am. How incompetent can Metro be? Even the cancellation notices arrive late - 29 minutes in this case.
- The following train (8:17am from Sandringham) was pretty packed, but somehow arrived at Richmond almost on time.
- But then it sat at Richmond station for 7 minutes, with no announcement from the driver.
- The train arrived at Flinders Street at 8:55am. 8 minutes late.
- Passengers aiming to catch the 8:08am from Sandringham, therefore arrived at Flinders Street 17 minutes late.
Metro Performance Update #4
- Of the 24 city-bound rush hour trips that I have recorded, 9 have run more than 5 minutes late.
- This equates to a punctuality performance of just 62.50%, compared with Metro's target of 88%.
- Over these 24 journeys, the cumulative lateness is 103 minutes (ouch, that hurts).
- For the return evening journey, performance is not quite so bad (but still rubbish) - over these 20 journeys, 7 trains have been more than 5 minutes late, giving a punctuality performance of 65%.
- Cumulative lateness on the return evening journey is only (??) 85 minutes.
- Over the 44 journeys (in both directions), the cumulative lateness is 188 minutes. Metro has now stolen over 3 hours from me (or my employer).
- With today's cancellation, my statistics indicate that 9.7% of morning rush hour trains are being cancelled.
My train this morning sat at Richmond station for 7 minutes, without a word from the driver. I know that the intercom was working, as otherwise the train would have been cancelled. Restless passengers were looking around at each other, at their watches and wondering what on earth was going on. Other trains were moving. This sort of thing happens quite often.
It is a mystery why Metro can't inform passengers what is happening in situations like this. If the driver had said that there was going to be a lengthy delay, I could have dashed for a city loop train and got to work earlier. Even if I didn't have that option, I would have felt slightly better just knowing what was going on.
Instead, passengers are just treated with compete disinterest. Oh well, it's only a few hundred people (some already very late thanks to a cancellation) that Metro is inconveniencing without comment or apology.
Sniffle season
One last thing for today - and I can't blame Metro for this - have you noticed that sniffle season has returned? It's not even winter and the trains are becoming germ bombs again. And who else wishes that snifflers would occasionally blow their noses instead of sniffling constantly? (I'm being deliberately provocative - if nobody will make comments on this blog about Metro, maybe I can stir some comments about snifflers.)
Until my next update, good luck with your commuting. You'll need it.
I feel your pain fellow Sandringham line commuter.
ReplyDeleteI get on at Prahran and have discovered over the last year that I cannot possibly make it to my job between the hours of 8am and 9am. I can either arrive at 9am exactly (or usually, a few minutes late) or I can arrive at 7:45am.
As I get on the train at Prahran, between 7:47 and 8:37 it is impossible for me to board as the trains are already full. If I arrive for the 7:47am train, I will almost certainly be standing on the platform watching packed trains go by until at least 8:27, usually 8:37. 50 minutes of frustration is not a good way to start the day.
And this of course is if no trains are randomly canceled with no notice.
Today I got to the station at 8:30 and saw a whiteboard sign out front. I know what that means. A train had been cancelled, and the platform was filled with a hundred people at least. No chance I'm getting on that 8:37.
I turned around and walked to South Yarra station (15 minutes) and took my chances with the city loop there. Luckily I still made it to work by 9:05.
My bosses now expect me to be the first one to arrive at some ridiculously early hour, or to be a few minutes late each day. Given that I only live a few stops from the city it's quite ridiculous.
Whing whing whinge!!!! Do you people realise that a driver is not psychic? How are they meant to know if there is a delay up ahead? See forward in time?? Usually the staff are the last people to find out what delays are, I discovered that many years ago. If you dont like catching trains, walk or ride a bike. There are other options other than just whinging about in on a stupid blog! I travel 4.5 hours a day (when the train is running on time) to get to work at my regional location. I would love to have a 20 minute commute to work, 30 minutes if it's running late, but we can't all be that lucky! Unreal!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous (whinge whinge whinge)
ReplyDeleteYou have completely missed the point of this blog. It isn't about whinging because the trains are late, it is about showing that Metro's performance statistics are rubbish and do not show how poor the train performance really is. Once the problem has been highlighted, and decision makers take note, then maybe this will drive investment in the system and improvements.
As to your comment "Do you people realise that a driver is not psychic?" - again I think that you miss the point. With modern communications, there is no reason why Metro should not be able to accurately track the position and status of all trains on the network - and advise customers accordingly. If Metro doesn't have such systems, then it is an obvious area for investment.
"If you dont like catching trains, walk or ride a bike" - comments like this aren't helpful and don't add to the discussion or the aim of the blog.