Another week of woe
I can count the number of times the services I have caught that arrived on time in the past week on one hand.
The excuses have ranged from nothing (ie no announcements) to "signal failures". I mean for F#$K sake's what have they actually upgraded in the past 3 years for millions of dollars for the f#$king signals to still not work reliably?
Last night's issue with the 4.40pm was the fact that despite having 38 new "Vulture" trains, V/Line still had problems finding an engine to dock to the carriages.
Overcrowding is also an issue, last night was the first time I've heard the conductor in 1st class actually loudly demand that all V/Line employees & Police vacate their seats. Too bloody right. If you ask my opinion, "special" people who get to sit in first class without holding a 1st class ticket should ONLY get to sit down AFTER the last pickup stop, so it will ensure all PAYING 1st class customers actually get a seat.
Here's clue senior V/Line management, maybe you should have considered the Commonwealth Games and ensured adequate services, or if you DON'T have the rolling stock (as I suspect), contract coaches as standby JUST in case. Don't make people stand around wondering what the F$#K their options are when things invariably go pear-shaped.
At least this morning the 6.20am was sparsely populated, no-one beside me & it arrived on time. I'm not holding my breath for tonight!
Update:
16.40 ~ not there & when carriages arrived no engine, as we waited it was announced the 16.55 was cancelled due to a defective engine replaced with coaches.
I waited some more, then another announcement saying 16.40 still delayed ... so I took a gamble and went to the coaches .... can someone let me know if the 16.40 eventually went?
The coach got me home at about 6.20pm ... so more or less two hours door to door. Rather ironically, I kind of expected this to happen, cos Vline is just useless.
Maybe if we are lucky we might get one day a week with normal afternoon services ... maybe.
The excuses have ranged from nothing (ie no announcements) to "signal failures". I mean for F#$K sake's what have they actually upgraded in the past 3 years for millions of dollars for the f#$king signals to still not work reliably?
Last night's issue with the 4.40pm was the fact that despite having 38 new "Vulture" trains, V/Line still had problems finding an engine to dock to the carriages.
Overcrowding is also an issue, last night was the first time I've heard the conductor in 1st class actually loudly demand that all V/Line employees & Police vacate their seats. Too bloody right. If you ask my opinion, "special" people who get to sit in first class without holding a 1st class ticket should ONLY get to sit down AFTER the last pickup stop, so it will ensure all PAYING 1st class customers actually get a seat.
Here's clue senior V/Line management, maybe you should have considered the Commonwealth Games and ensured adequate services, or if you DON'T have the rolling stock (as I suspect), contract coaches as standby JUST in case. Don't make people stand around wondering what the F$#K their options are when things invariably go pear-shaped.
At least this morning the 6.20am was sparsely populated, no-one beside me & it arrived on time. I'm not holding my breath for tonight!
Update:
16.40 ~ not there & when carriages arrived no engine, as we waited it was announced the 16.55 was cancelled due to a defective engine replaced with coaches.
I waited some more, then another announcement saying 16.40 still delayed ... so I took a gamble and went to the coaches .... can someone let me know if the 16.40 eventually went?
The coach got me home at about 6.20pm ... so more or less two hours door to door. Rather ironically, I kind of expected this to happen, cos Vline is just useless.
Maybe if we are lucky we might get one day a week with normal afternoon services ... maybe.
posted by vlinewhinger at 8:05 am
6 Comments:
Hello from Da Writa...
Although I now have to endure Connex on occasion, I do not miss V/Line one little bit.
Yes I know, you have deserted me & left me to fend off all the fatty boombah's ...
overcrowding could be avoided if unhappy souls drove their cars instead of bitching about something they know nothing about. most of my experiences have been good. even when late we have been informed of the delay. staff are not always the issue although i dont know how some of them gained their employment. the government are the ones that provide the "recources". the signals arent complete and the works were only done between werribee and corio.
why do you continue to travel if it wounds you so?
Great theory poster #3! Let's all drive in and abandon the trains, I'm sure that'll fix everything.
It's quite obvious that V/Line and Connex have serious communication problems over and above the number of delays and cancellations. If you choose to believe they're doing a good job then that's your prerogative, but you won't convince others that they are kept informed.
The reason people continue to rely on V/Line and Connex for their travel needs is that the Government is making it increasingly unattractive to employ any other means of commuting.
beware the conductor this week on the 1655 he loves it when the train runs late.
Spot on...
I'm a V/Line employee (leaker) and I can tell you that a good percentage of 1st class travellers in the peak hour are non-paying customers.
Whenever I'm travelling, I will always stand in the conductors area rather than take a paying customer's seat. The problems you outline are all valid points. I have many friends that travel to work on V/Line services and receive a barrage of texts whenever anything goes wrong. I will say though that under the new CEO we are finding solutions to these problems that have hurt our performance for the last couple of years and you will begin to see some big improvements not only in the delivery of train services but also as the culture shift influences conductors from viewing themselves as "fare enforcement" to a more customer service based role. Keep up the good work Vline Whinger.
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