Yesterday I wrote that I couldn't believe that Metro's performance was getting even worse. But the trend has continued.
My train this morning arrived at Flinders Street 18 minutes late. This capped off a horrible week of Metro performance (and there has been a lack of bad weather to blame it on).
So far I have made 9 journeys with Metro in May - and 7 of them have been more than 5 minutes late. In Metro performance terms, that's a punctuality performance of 22%!
On average, my May journeys have been over 8 minutes late per trip. The 5 morning trips that I made to the city ran a total of 52 minutes late - that's over 10 minutes per trip on average.
I'm sure that my boss is secretly factoring my lateness into my next pay review.
In less than 5 working days, Metro has stolen almost 1 hour and 20 minutes from me, and hundreds of other commuters!
I've tried to report performance data dispassionately, but after this week, I'm not sure I can keep a level head much longer. If this continues, future blog entries will be richer in abuse and ranting, if only to keep me sane.
How are you feeling about this? It would be good to get some feedback from other commuters.
Friday 6 May 2011
Thursday 5 May 2011
71% of Metro trains late so far in May 2011
I can't believe it, but Metro's performance has got even worse since my last blog. My last two journeys have been 9 and 7 minutes late.
So far I have made 7 journeys with Metro in May - and 5 of them have been more than 5 minutes late. In Metro performance terms, that's a punctuality performance of 29%! And it isn't as though the trains are missing by only just over 5 minutes. On average, my May journeys have been almost 8 minutes late.
In less than 4 working days, Metro has stolen almost 1 hour from me!
The train once again ran oddly slow for the first half of it's journey to the city today. After the media comments last week about drivers doing this deliberately, my suspicions are rising.
So far I have made 7 journeys with Metro in May - and 5 of them have been more than 5 minutes late. In Metro performance terms, that's a punctuality performance of 29%! And it isn't as though the trains are missing by only just over 5 minutes. On average, my May journeys have been almost 8 minutes late.
In less than 4 working days, Metro has stolen almost 1 hour from me!
The train once again ran oddly slow for the first half of it's journey to the city today. After the media comments last week about drivers doing this deliberately, my suspicions are rising.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Metro performance sinks to new lows!
It's early in the month, but so far I have made 5 journeys with Metro in May - and 3 of them have been more than 5 minutes late. In Metro performance terms, that's a punctuality performance of 40%! To make matters worse, two particular services were late by 17 minutes and 9 minutes.
Across just 5 journeys in May, Metro has run 38 minutes late. My total lateness across all journeys recorded since 09/03/2011 has blown out to 250 minutes!
This morning was almost a repeat of the shocker on Monday. The 8:08 Sandringham to city service was running about 10 minutes late. It was packed, and I knew that the train behind was only a few minutes away, so I waited. Late and crowded trains are horrible, so I will usually opt to avoid them if I can. And then, the 8:17 service managed to run 9 minutes late. Great.
There would have been a lot of commuters again left stranded at stations between Elsternwick and South Yarra. They wouldn't have made it onto the 8:08 service (without dragging somebody off the train) and then would have caught the delayed 8:17 service - arriving almost 20 minutes late. I feel really quite sorry for these commuters - they live close to the city, but many days, thanks to crap Metro performance, they have a long commute.
I'll publish a detailed performance update soon. With over 50 observations now, it is clear that Metro's performance statistics are of little relevance to rush hour commuters.
Good luck with your commuting. You'll need it.
Across just 5 journeys in May, Metro has run 38 minutes late. My total lateness across all journeys recorded since 09/03/2011 has blown out to 250 minutes!
This morning was almost a repeat of the shocker on Monday. The 8:08 Sandringham to city service was running about 10 minutes late. It was packed, and I knew that the train behind was only a few minutes away, so I waited. Late and crowded trains are horrible, so I will usually opt to avoid them if I can. And then, the 8:17 service managed to run 9 minutes late. Great.
There would have been a lot of commuters again left stranded at stations between Elsternwick and South Yarra. They wouldn't have made it onto the 8:08 service (without dragging somebody off the train) and then would have caught the delayed 8:17 service - arriving almost 20 minutes late. I feel really quite sorry for these commuters - they live close to the city, but many days, thanks to crap Metro performance, they have a long commute.
I'll publish a detailed performance update soon. With over 50 observations now, it is clear that Metro's performance statistics are of little relevance to rush hour commuters.
Good luck with your commuting. You'll need it.
Monday 2 May 2011
Awful start to May 2011 - 17 minutes late!
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.
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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