April 2011 was a month that Metro and Melbourne commuters would like to forget. But May 2011 has started very badly for Sandringham line commuters.
The 8:08 Sandringham to city service ran 17 minutes late this morning. The following train was also delayed very badly - I didn't catch it, but suspect that it would have been over 10 minutes late.
As frustrating as it was to roll up late at work yet again, the poor passengers at Windsor and Prahran who couldn't even get onto the packed train must have been feeling even worse. Even as far back as Elsternwick, passengers were opting to not get on the train - and who can blame them - we all know how crowed Metro carriages are when trains run services run late.
I thought that a fight might break out on the train today. One bloke was shouting at some passengers to move down the carriage. A reasonable request, but it was delivered in an extremely aggressive and rude way. We just don't need this on our morning commutes.
When we finally arrived at Flinders Street, we were faced with another wait to get through the ticket barriers. Some bright spark from Metro (hmm, does Metro employ bright sparks?) has decided to set several barriers to one-way traffic only. I can see the logic (allowing passengers to enter the station when a wall of passengers is trying to exit it), but Metro has got the balance completely wrong. There were several ticket barriers standing idle whilst a footy crowd of passengers tried to squeeze through the open gates. Whatever Metro are trying to do here, it isn't working.
I decided to speak with a Metro staffer to voice my concerns about the new flawed system, hoping that they would take it on board and pass on to management. In the end I spoke to 3 Metro people. Here are a noteworthy parts of my discussions.
Metro Worker 1 (MW1) - "they are experimenting". Me - "but you agree that it isn't working". MW1 - "I can't comment". Me - "but it's obvious isn't it - you can see the crowd?". MW1 - "I can't let you through, you'll have to queue up over there." Me - "I don't want you to let me through, I just want you to acknowledge that it's not working."
I joined the queue. It was barely moving, and I hate crowds, so I went to the Metro desk in the middle of Flinders Street concourse.
Me - "I'd like to give you some feedback". MW2 - "I can't take feedback, here is a form, you can email them." Me - "but i think you need to see this, just look at the crowds trying to get out of the station, the new system isn't working". MW2 - "I can't do anything about it, you'll have to email feedback". Me (frustrated now) - "but you work for Metro, you can see there is a problem, why can't you give feedback internally?". MW2 - "it's not my job, I'm on a contract".
MW3 - "Yes, I see there is a problem". (Hooray, finally!). MW3 - "The problem is that they built a wall here, when they should have put more barriers in."
At this point, exasperated, I realised that I was wasting my breath and making myself even later for work. MW3 recognised that there was a problem, but couldn't admit that it was the system that Metro were using. Instead he blamed the wall. That wall has been there for over 10 years (probably much longer). I agree that more barriers would be better than the wall, but we need something to hold the roof up. What we don't need is incompetent Metro management, experimenting with passenger flows during morning rush hours.
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