Vline Whinger

I'm still around!

2012-01-22T21:34:00.002+11:00

Rumours of my demise are incorrect.

1. I still work in Melbourne and live in Geelong.
2. I still commute daily on V/Line
3. V/Line still has many of the issues previously mentioned
4. Sorry anonymous from comments in last blog entry, I can't hand over the blog as it is linked to a google account that is mine.
5. I may yet revive VlineWhinger and if it's available add a Twitter account!

That's all for now, see you on the platform!

exVlinewhinger!

Bye for now!

2008-05-04T13:51:00.002+10:00

Been quite a few months since my last blog about Vline.

It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, that the service has not improved or been anything but woeful since October last year. The past few weeks have been particularly bad, what with train delays, track work (on a track only a few years old?) and general cock-ups that wouldn't be out of a place in a bad b-grade comedy script.

Add to that the myopic view of our state government and senior management in Vline when it comes to overcrowding. Duh ... petrol prices go up, (and will continue to do so) means you better add more capacity to the network at a rate faster than ONE carriage per month (see the recent trumpeting announcement which if you read it carefully means it will actually take close to TWO years for the "extra" 1600 seats to come in operation).

I really don't care anymore and I've not cared about the performance of Vline for quite sometime. I know eventually I will either get home or get to work, but I know it will never be on time! And I know there will be inexplicable delays at various points of the journey as Connex always gets priority in signalling, a signal system that is more suited to the 19th Century than the 21st ... come on ... 3 days to fix a fault signal at Werribee?

There are too many examples of complete incompetence to write about here from the past few months, but I can say this on behalf of my fellow travellers on V/line. They are all fed-up with the service, the overcrowding and the delays.

Will things improve? To be honest I do not believe they will. I've spoken to the complaints line (hello to the lovely Wendy), I've spoken to the "show the flag" senior managers and talked about the issues I've written about here and nothing has really changed.

Vline just doesn't get it. The government & the cloth-earred Kosky doesn't get it. Maybe one day they will actually have an idea and a vision and cut the bullshit and fix the problems and provide a world class service.

In the meantime, I'm taking two months off travelling on the trains, and indeed working and going to enjoy myself on a holiday to Europe.

I may be back here, who knows ... but in the meantime farewell & good luck to everyone still stuck on the trains of hell run by Vline.

Oh, as an addendum, I don't have any problems with the conductors on the trains (mostly) they are stuck doing a thankless task, so hopefully none of my blogs can be seen as an "attack" on the guys and gals on the coalface!

Just when V/Line thought it was safe! I'm back!

2007-10-13T11:17:00.000+10:00

The rumours of my untimely cessation of blogging were unwarranted, I've just been slack in keeping this blog updated (very slack!).

Has V/Line improved that much that my incessant whinging is not required? Nope, but I'll be the first to admit, if you don't have anything negative to say on a blog with the title "Whinger" then say nothing at all! ;-)

Okay, I'll stop with the "cute" comments (someone, allegedly a V/Line conductor, left a comment a while ago that this blog was a "cute little website" ... ahh gotta love such biting sarcasm, I'm still bleeding!).

I've actually been on holidays the past few weeks, but I still get occasional updates from friends who are travelling about various incidents, think I've missed a few good ones! On the whole, since my last post in June, things have been for the large part reasonably okay.

Good grief, I hear you say ... is that an admission that the service level has been tolerable? Well for the most part in my experience it has been. I suppose my expectation level is that I'm going to encounter at least one stuff-up a week, which you can't avoid.

On the whole, the 4.40pm homeward train has been good ... aside from the couple of times when it stuffed up multiple times in a week, usually the same old issue of V'Locity carriages either not being there on time at the platform or some 'technical' issues. Unfortunately those are the nights when things really go pear-shaped and impact not only that service but usually the 4.55pm and 5.13pm after it (and even the 5.29pm).

One such occurance happened a few weeks ago and by happy coincidence, although I'd jumped across to the 4.55pm, I still got to speak to some V/line Management about the situation and my wider complaints, criticisms and compliments.

I'm not sure if she has ever read this blog (I was a little hesitant to give out the address, thus blowing my relative anonymity) but I'd like to thank Ursula of V/Line Management to listening politely and attentively to the various things I had to say. Yes, I was polite & diplomatic, despite the complete cock-up (the second day in a row) but with a grain of salt I have to say, whether things get acted upon, I'm not sure but kudos for at least showing your customers (passengers) that you are not sitting in Ivory Towers and leaving the conductors to cop all the grievances on the coal-front.

The other week I did spend some time perusing the V/Line website reading statistics and information regarding performance results. There was an interesting chart that showed by percentage, the majority of Melbourne-bound trains were on time until they hit the suburban network. No surprise there. I just hope that some of the clever bureaucrats and consultants can come up with some solutions around this.

I'm not going to be smarmy and suggest "just build more track" as the quick-fix solution, because obviously that is a longer-term (and difficult) solution, but surely there is a way to improve how efficiently the track we have is used. Ideally, analysing the choke points on the system, perhaps building "passing" tracks where possible, improving signalling, changing to a system where multiple trains can safely be used on the same part of track.

Ah well, enough waffling (it's not really whinging!) and I'll see how my return to the trains goes next week. :)

The logic of V/line yet again ........

2007-06-19T20:49:00.000+10:00

Sorry, been absent for a bit. Have kind of given up on regular whinging and settled into the apathetic chant of "at least I get home eventually".

Tonight deserves special mention for a good demonstration of V/Line logic on how to piss off the maximum amount of customers as possible at once.

This was achieved by various means. Firstly by cancelling the 4.13pm (which is a stop all stations train) and obviously not informing those passengers that the next train (the 4.40pm service) is an EXPRESS service & the next stop all stations is the 4.55pm

The end result? An overcrowded 4.40pm which did not depart on time & whose passengers were left uninformed (as usual) as to what the delay was. To add insult to injury, the charming conductor cheerfully announces that we would now become a stop all stations service due to the cancellation of the previous train.

So bad luck to anyone who had any plans for tonight or who were hoping to make it to Geelong on time (for the record we were 30 minutes late eventually).

Amazingly, we still sat at the station until 4.50pm! So the logic of making the 4.40pm a stop all stations was made a mockery of when 5 minutes later the 4.55pm would leave anyway!

Let's not mention the faux pax from the lovely conductor when she announced "let's hope we get to Geelong in ONE piece" ... ummm even I cringed at that callous & thoughtless remark. Given the trajedy recently in Kerang, you'd have hoped she would have engaged her brain before saying something as stupid as that.

Well done V/line, for continuing the poor service & failing to inform your passengers in a timely fashion and choosing the most illogical way to solve issues.

let's not mention the two or three times when the 4.40pm hasn't run (or run late) and the 4.55pm was overcrowded. Luckily each time that happened I'd already bailed on the 4,40pm and gone and got a seat on the 4.55pm - no thanks to lack of announcements from Vline about what was going on!

Lucky for V/Line this is not Argentina!

2007-05-17T13:44:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since my last post, aside from the usual ups and downs (4.40pm late at least twice a week & mornings getting slower) there haven't been too many "whinge-worthy" events. Or maybe I am becoming desensitised!

Not so the commuters in Argentina, who apparently went on a riot due to poor service!

Lucky for V/Line we are more docile here and the worst they can expect from me is this blog :)

It's a bit late, but apparently this blog (and connexwhinger) got a mention on the Age website (again)

Read the blog here

Vline screws up YET AGAIN!

2007-04-26T19:10:00.000+10:00

Once again my previous posts naming the V'locity trains as White Elephants are proved true once more. Yet another debacle on the 4.40pm service saw it delayed until aroun 5.10pm & leaving with barely anybody on it ... as most people had crammed onto the 4.55pm service or given up and gone to the 5.13pm service (like me) ...

Meanwhile due to the late late late departure of the 4.40pm, the 5.13pm got delayed & sat at the "Telstra Stop" (ie in the yards opposite the Telstra Dome) due to some signal issue for around 3 minutes .... cumulatively this added up so by the time we got to Geelong station, the 5.13pm was nearly 20 minutes late from the time it *can* arrive at Geelong (around 6.08pm on a good run ... 5 mins earlier than the scheduled 6.13pm)

So what was the wash up of tonight? 4.55pm over-crowded and LATE .... 4.40pm run over 30 mins LATE ... 5.13pm nearly 20 minutes LATE and as for the 5.29pm who knows what time it got it ... but no doubt very LATE as well, as it didn't pass us (I don't think). So four trains screwed up and hundreds of rather annoyed people ...

All this after the much trumpeted journey of Vline Senior Management on the 4.40pm on Monday night (which of course ran great ... at least they can get it right when the big bosses travel .... to bad the said big bosses were not able to walk through the whole length of the train to talk to all passengers. .... because as we all know the White Elephant V'locity's are three sets of two "linked" carriages .... too bad they couldn't find three senior managers to go in the three separate sets ....

And too bad there was no Senior Vline Managers on any of tonight's services??

Ahh Vline, you make it too easy to write this blog ... woeful service at least several times a week!

Another small whinge ... a guy who sat beside in First Class tonight was obviously one of the "free-loader" types (I think he was a National Rail or something on his shirt) I really object to these types NOT showing any ID to the conductor. Maybe I should get a shirt with some logo that looks like either Yarra Trams or Connex or National Rail or something and travel for FREE too??

Don't mention FAT people to me either ... I had a contender for next year's THE BIGGEST LOSER sit next to me this morning. I don't mind so much, but when you can't even be bothered to SMELL half decent in the morning and then try to take over half of my seat too when you sit down, do you wonder why I make your journey HELL by delibrately elbowing you in the ribs & bouncing up and down on the seat when you fall asleep and snore right in my ear you fat ignorant bastard??

Yes ... the vlinewhinger had a great set of train journeys today! I must have pissed off the gods of travel .... time to go sacrifice a goat or two & burn the entrails to appease them!

p.s. I feel sorry for the conductors I really do ... they obviously are not really kept informed, and do their best, many thanks to both the 4.40pm and 5.13pm conductors for keeping us informed as much as possible & being apologetic for the bad service, small things like that (however token) IS appreciated.

An okay week ....

2007-04-15T14:03:00.000+10:00

Well last week was a fairly quiet week for whinging, most trains I caught were on time, aside from one of the morning services, which was due to the now semi-regular stop just before North Melbourne in the mornings.

I caught the 6.00am from Geelong most days, and the 17.13 twice and 16.40 twice. Happily both the afternoon trains were actually on (or near on-time) and were actually at the platform to board before departing on time.

There also seemed to be a lack of the "pause" in the yards after leaving Spencer Street Station. Although I think it did happen on Thursday night, but we made the time up.

Not wanting to jinx myself for the coming week, but as most people would be back from any Easter Holidays, I reckon it will all fall apart for V/Line this week! I really hope I'm wrong!

The train troubles seemed to happen for work colleagues though on Connex, with the Hurstbridge (I think) line being stopped due to some nutter wandering on the tracks.

Interesting Article

2007-04-09T17:01:00.000+10:00

I'm still around!

One positive to mention is I'm a big fan of the lower fare prices and the handy dandy 1st Class upgrade voucher system that has been introduced.

Unfortunately the reliability of V/line has decreased to the point where I fully expect at least 3 times a week to be significantly late either in the mornings or the evenings (or have a train totally cancelled at least once a week). I've built that into my expectations, hence my lack of regular vitirol being expounded on this page.

There was an interesting article in the Age today:

"Train Speed limits cause big delays"

The article explains how most of V/line's issues and poor performance stem from the suburban network bottlenecks and also the braking problems that Connex had recently.

Sorry, that bullshit doesn't wash with me as most of the issues experienced are as basic as locomotives or carriages not even being available on the platforms when required. Never mind about being stuck behind suburban trains or faulty signals or whatever other excuses they come up with but the underlying point seems to be the total lack of ability to get rolling stock on the platforms to take passengers to destinations.

It's not rocket science. They know what trains are needed and when. If the shit hits the fan then there should be plans to deal with it and keep travellers informed. Half the time the lovely customer service people themselves have no clue what is going on, so somewhere the chains of communication do not exist or people simply don't give a shit.

Come on V/line, get rid of the dead wood in your organisation, get some decent managers in there and start running a decent train service sometime soon.

The Good, the Bad and the V/Line.

2007-03-02T13:08:00.000+11:00

I've got a bit of spare time up my sleeve over lunch here at work, so I thought I'd devote it to a blog as it has been too long since my last one. Unlike the phrase "no news is good news" the lack of blogs has not been because V/Line has been running perfectly, for it hasn't.

Indeed I can relate how a few weeks ago the 17.13 left only to cease moving at the Latrobe St bridge for 35 minutes due to a signal fault & having to wait for a 2nd Train Driver to stand on the back of the train whilst it backed back to the station so it could go forwards again ......

Then there is the rather annoying delays between Spencer St (sorry Southern Cross) and North Melbourne in both the mornings & evenings. V/Line trains obviously have less of a priority than Connex Trains as we invariably wait for ages and what should be a 3 minute journey at the most between stations turns into upwards of 10 minutes.

It is not unusual for the 17.13 to leave on time, stop and wait for a minute BEFORE even clearing the platform at Southern Cross and then AGAIN stopping and waiting for another minute or two minutes in the yards just before the Latrobe St overpass.

I've caught the V'locity trains a few times and I just do not like them. Most trips I can tolerate them, but all the annoying things are just so obvious ... overcrowding being one of them, the lack of curtains & inadequate tinting on windows, the angle of the seats & lack of leg room ....... and reading my comments on the previous blog entry, I'm not the only one complaining.

OK, some good points .... the reduction in fare prices & the introduction of "1st class vouchers" is a good point. The disparity to what 'suburban' passengers pay for an equal distance travelled and what V/line Geelong customers pay for travelling the same distance is somewhat mitigated by the latest round of fare revisions. That's a step in the right direction.

Ok I managed a paragraph of good points, unfortunately it is back to the bad points. Conductor announcements should be limited to what station is next, arrival times & incidental announcements where necessary (eg apologising when we are late & the reason). I do not want to hear the same repetitive announcement regarding doors, safety & stepping on platforms correctly. I am not a moron and neither are 99% of other passengers. I don't care what lawsuit you lost, but making conductors parrot out ridiculous reminders for public safety seems to be an Americanism (coping for the lowest common denominator) we do not need.

Timetables: When you can't make your punctuality make a reason to "adjust" your timetable ... good one V/Line. But please don't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars publishing glossy propoganda telling us long-suffering how the timetable is getting better when some journeys are going to take LONGER and your flagship 17.29 "45 minute" service is perpetually late & overcrowded!

That's my post for now ....... plenty more to add but I am being paid to work & not complain at the moment! It's good to find a few more vline whinge blogs & posts out there, I'll try and link the two that I found.

I also noticed that the Vline website seems to be coming along nicely, there was mention of sms updates & 'real time' train tracking ... most interesting!

Hot Days = Slow Trains

2007-01-16T13:18:00.000+11:00

http://www.vline.com.au/home/news/en/21/649/article.aspx

Well just when the hot weather strikes we have the 'reduced speed' restrictions. Yet again I question whether this is actually necessary on a brand new track between Werribee & Corio that is obviously constructed with modern methods that reduce the risk of 'sun kink'. Maybe it is the sparks from poorly maintained carriages/engines that could start a fire beside the tracks if they do more than 90 km/h on a day like today.

Either way, what it means for commuters is a longer journey home - and you can bet your bottom dollar that air conditioning on some carriages will not be working and services will be cancelled due to locomotives not working (even the new V'locity's!)

My only dilemma is do I aim for the early 4.40pm or work back late to catch a train after 8pm when it will be slightly cooler and a faster run home (even if the services are stop all stations at that time).

Mehhh .... :)

Vline gets it's man aka the Whinger cops it!

2007-01-12T20:37:00.000+11:00

Yes silence does sometimes mean everything seems to be okay, and mostly it has this week! Almost a total whitewash for the whinger, not able to complain about anything!

Unfortunately for yours truly, I knew Friday afternoon is always D-day. Even after yesterday's Vline Cock-up of only 4 V'locity carriages for the 4.40pm, I still had a seat and it was on time, so can't really complain about that.

Tonight I aimed for the 4.40pm again, only to have the familiar sight of no train at the platform and Vline conductor and customer relations staff looking confused (along with several hundred despondant Geelong commuters).

The 'missing' carriages eventually turned up and we were under way at 5pm, only 20 minutes late. As we departed I heard a platform announcement that the 17.13 had been cancelled. Obviously more problems finding trains ... or rather I'd say if the 4.55pm left after us (being a stopping all stations) they didn't bother running the limited express after it and made the 5.29pm stop at Lara.

Who knows, I'm pretty sure Vline makes it up as they go along as evidenced by tonight. My own personal theory is the blokes responsible for shunting or driving the carriages from the yards were probably too busy watching the cricket on TV and forgot they actually had a job to do.

So it wouldn't have mattered if I'd aimed for my regular 17.13 train, Vline still would have got me! At least they actually drove the pants off the White Elephants and we ended up only being a bit on 10 minutes late, not a bad effort and yet again proves that the Geelong express trip could possibly be done in 40 minutes flat (given that it was at 35 minutes when we were just past Corio). It is just that Spencer St>Werribee run (which we did in 23 minutes today) that is the hold up.

All in all, not such a bad week. Next week it looks like another couple of scorchers, so I wonder how the trains will cope with the heat.

Defective locos & fires by the track

2007-01-04T08:53:00.000+11:00

Waited for the 17.13 last night (Wed) ... waited waited, and unfortunately it apparently had a defective locomotive, so we had to wait for another one.

Inquired as to whether it was expected to go before or after 17.29, helpful answer was "We don't know". So I made the decision to head for the 17.29.

Sat with a friend of mine for a catch up after new years, so that was all good, but then saw the 17.13 depart before us with just a few minutes before the 17.29 was due to go. I don't understand, a service is already late, which is going to hold up the express service after it, so they allow it to go ... meaning TWO services will be late on arriving.

Add that to some supposed "fire by the track" which delayed us even more, and the 17.29 got in around 15 minutes late ... even on holidays it seems the Flagship service has settled into an hour journey, the promise of 45 minutes long forgotten it seems.

One more journey tonight & then another break until Monday at least.

6.01am from Geelong ran on time arriving just on 7.01am at Melbourne.

Holidays ending .....

2007-01-01T12:46:00.000+11:00

My short break is about to end, and although I only face a few days this week on the Vline, I sit here and ponder, will 2007 be the year I can finally retire my blog? Will there be a miraculous culture change in VLine and the Government towards public transport meaning that logic and true customer service and reliability become the by-words are ingrained into the organisational culture.

Will "5 minutes is close enough" become like the Japanese credo of "1 minute is still LATE"!

We can but hope.

I draw some hope from the planned fare reductions coming in March and the introduction of '1st class upgrade' vouchers that have (very) quietly been launched, which enable regular commuters such as myself not to be disadvantaged by services lacking a 1st Class carriage/section.

All steps in the right direction. I really do hope I can retire this blog this year, but I'm not holding my breath.

Mornings are stuffed!

2006-12-14T08:31:00.000+11:00

Both yesterday and this morning the 6.20am has been late. Yesterday was due to signal problems between Hoppers Crossing & Aircraft and this morning, no idea but we were nearly a good 15 minutes late.

Last night the 17.13 was late, mostly due to either the 16.40 or 16.55 running late. Ended up being around 10~15 minutes late (I didn't really pay much attention in the end).

I had an interesting chat to the conductor before getting on. I do feel for the conductors as most of the time they are not told why delays are happening (for trains departing at the station). He made the observation to me that Vline customers seemed perpetually unhappy compared to Connex customers (where he had worked previously).

After last week's debacle, is it any surprise!?

Swapping Morning Trains ....

2006-12-12T09:47:00.000+11:00

I caught the 6.01am from Geelong today. For the first time in around a year it was a two-car Sprinter.

Last year before it changed to a loco-drawn train of one 1st class and two (three?) economy, the two car sprinter had quite a few spare seats. Obviously as people gravitated towards the service, it has become a bit fuller.

I know conductors count numbers, so who is the bright spark in V/Line who decided to stick a 2-car Sprinter on a service that has obviously expanded in patronage!

I reckon there must be a shortage of carriages again, as I noticed the 6.44am has dropped a 1st class carriage as well (it normally has two). So once again 1st class passengers are being shafted.

V/Line should either bite the bullet & cancel 1st class on the Geelong line altogether OR provide a decent service & value to those who are prepared to pay the extra premium and not this half-arsed approach.

Still, the Sprinters do cut a few minutes off a stop-all stations ... and to be honest, I prefer them to the V'Locity white elephants, as I know which seat to aim for that gives me heaps of leg room & almost always guarentees no-one sits next to me.

Tossing up between comfort & earlier home today (17.13 vs 16.40).

p.s. interesting comment in feedback on track blog, re V/Line petitioning to have the 90 km.h increased on the A-grade tracks, makes sense.

No Hassles Monday

2006-12-11T19:40:00.000+11:00

6.20am ran on time (as most morning trains that I catch do).

17.13 actually departed on time, and even more amazingly did not do the stop start, stop start, journey through the yards. Indeed we made it to Nth Melb in a record time of around 4 minutes. I think that is the fastest an afternoon train that I've caught in a long time has done the Melbourne ~ Nth Melb distance!

Unfortunately we then proceeded fairly slowly between Nth Melb & Footscray and Newport, but made up time after that and arrived around 18.09, only a few minutes later than the fastest time the 17.13 has done.

Should be smooth sailing tomorrow (hopefully) as it is not heating up again until Wed or Thu.

Self-Education ~ Hot Summer = Slow Speeds

2006-12-10T19:07:00.000+11:00

With a seemingly long hot summer ahead of us, unfortunately I think us commuters had better get used to longer train journeys. I browsed the V/Line website and found the following article:

http://www.vline.com.au/home/news/en/20/625/article.aspx

"High temperatures in many parts of Victoria provide a timely reminder that V/Line services can be affected when the mercury climbs into the 30s.

As a safety precaution track operator Pacific National imposes speed restrictions on V/Line trains when the forecast temperature is 36 degrees and above (32 degrees and above for some sections of track in outer regional areas).

This has been standard operating procedure in the Victorian rail industry for more than 10 years.

High temperatures can affect rail track and the speed restrictions are designed to ensure trains are able to continue to operate safely.

Pacific National has advised that when speed restrictions are imposed during the summer, V/Line trains will not be able to operate above 90 km/h."

Hooray, this fills me with joyful anticipation and not only do we have to worry about carriages that have defective air-con (even the new V'locity's suffer this issue, especially when left standing in the sunlight in the yards all afternoon), but commuters will enjoy the extra 10~15 minutes added travel time.

Anyway, this led me to read up on railway tracks and I learnt about "sun kink" which is an issue that can cause derailments.

"Engineers try to heat the rail to a temperature roughly midway between the average extremes of hot and cold (this is known as the 'rail neutral temperature'). If temperatures reach outside normal ranges however, welded rail can buckle in a hotter than usual summer or can actually break in a colder than anticipated winter."

From: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_tracks#Continuous_welded_rail"

So I'm thinking that as soon as temperatures get above 32~36 this is the 'rail neutral temperature' that our new tracks between Geelong & Werribee (were the new tracks were laid), are rated for. You learn something new every-day.

It still doesn't make me happy, but you can't argue with science & engineering and safety precautions!

A clean sweep! - late again!

2006-12-08T18:21:00.000+11:00

As I predicted, 4 days in a row LATE (and if I'd been at work on Monday & caught my usual train the 17.13 it was late that day too, so would have been 5 days LATE).

Tonight I caught the 4.40pm and guess what ... we caught up to the 4.07pm which was running late & as it is a stopping all stations train, we had to crawl along. So we ended up being around 15 minutes late.

Ummm correct me if I'm wrong but are there not change-overs or whatever they are called that allow a faster train to overtake a slower train (obviously as long as there is no other train coming the other way). We caught up at Werribee, we could have passed at Lt River or Lara, but nope ....

F#$King pathetic V/Line ... but as I knew this would happen (no matter which train I aimed for tonight) I'm not all that fussed, just resigned to the week being totally crap service. Come on, you've had MONTHS to work out this time-table and settle things in.

I see weekend services have been replaced by coaches, I guess they are scared the trains can't handle the heat tomorrow, so have to keep them tucked up in the shade. Even the brand new V'locty's ... can you spell WHITE ELEPHANT?

:)

What I don't understand is how the majority of the time the morning trains can run okay (except for the Flagship service in the morning which I know from friends who catch it is ALWAYS late by at least 10~20 mins) but when it comes to the afternoons, the wheels (well not literally) fall off and it seems to be all too hard.

Anyway, the weekend is here & I can forget the woeful service, at least until Monday.

50th Whinge!

2006-12-07T21:10:00.000+11:00

Woohoo, I just noticed this is whinge number fifty about V/line's crappy service to Geelong.

Tonight was no exception. At least they actually managed to get the 17.13 running tonight, albeit 4 minutes late from departing the platform. Hopes were dashed as we stopped before even clearing the end of platform 3. Indeed, it took nearly ten minutes to even get past the Latrobe St Overpass and out of the yards proper, a new record I think.

Total travel time ended up being another 25 minutes late. At least I got to travel in 1st Class comfort and not jammed into a V'locity.

Even the conductor tonight was making comments about "we should get to Geelong, sometime before 7pm?" I feel for the front line customer service staff, I really do. They are just as powerless when cock-ups happen as us passengers.

The real blame lies at the feet at the senior management of V/Line and of other bodies such as DOI and EDI and the State Government. Trains have been around for nearly 150 years plus ... how F#@#ng hard is it to get it right? You bunch of morons!

I can live with the occasional inconvenience, maybe once a week ... but THREE days in a row! Blistering Barnacles!

I remain skeptical as to whether tomorrow will be any different, after all it is a Friday. Roll on the really hot weather, the trains will not run at all if the one mildly hot day we had this week is any example.

Two in a row!

2006-12-06T18:57:00.000+11:00

A quick temporary post as I'm late for going out.

17.13 cancelled, 17.29 only 1 velocity available at proper departure time, by the time the other two hooked up & crowds of people get its 17.50 departure ... no stop at Nth Melb (so heaps of people there unhappy) and train stops at Lara cos lara people got on. Apparently 16.40 also had same probs & overcrowded.

Vline ... if you were a cricket team, you'd be england, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

p.s. Gods of Fate, you suck too! :)

Hot = Go Slow

2006-12-05T20:58:00.000+11:00

Dammit internet, I'm still here!

I get up every day and pray to the gods of fate that my journeys on V/Line will be pleasant and fast and uneventful. The gods of fate answered me and told me the wish would be granted on one condition: Cease and desist thy petty ponderings and complainings!

And so I have been quiet through many happenings. Blissfully I avoided the 2+ hour delays that plagued some commuters a few weeks ago on the homeward journey. I endured sickness yesterday and avoided a late 17.13 service. Unfortunately the gods of fate did not uphold their end of the bargain.

Hot weather struck, and millions spent on upgrading tracks & signals were all for naught as several peak hour services were reduced to crawling between Lt River & Lara and again between Northshore & Nth Geelong until we arrived around 25 minutes late at Geelong Station.

I feel for the people on the 17.29 "Flagship" 45 minute FAST train who were stuck behind us, at least until Lara when they changed tracks and went past us, only to find themselves stranded just after the Lara crossing and waiting for us to go past again due to another Melb-bound train (I think) ... what a debacle!

An aside: Can V/Line please make its mind up what it is going to do with 1st Class? I don't give a rats arse about getting a refund when more and more services are "one-class" but trying to persuade me not to buy a 1st class ticket when I've specifically stated that's what I want, please, I have the intelligence to work out after several months of the new timetable exactly which services have a 1st class carriage and which don't (the star on the timetable is a big help!). I'd rather take a service that gets me in 5 mins earlier than the Flagship service (that always runs at 51 minutes, not 45) and have a peaceful and comfortable journey home, than be crammed in a packed V'locity in seats that are smaller than 1st class, not adjustable, no curtains to cut out the sun-glare and have to put up with the "general" public and queue up at the station before the one I want to get off at because every bastard wants to get off first and lines up blocking the walkways.

There you go, I started whimsical and silly and ended on form. I'm back and V/Line you are still pathetic despite the glossy propaganda pamphlets you put out declaring otherwise. Spend the money on providing a decent & reliable service not spouting bullshit. That's my job. ;-)

p.s. Screw you Gods of Fate too, the deal's off!

From V/Line with love & kisses ....

2006-10-24T20:30:00.000+10:00

I'm in a fairly whimsical mood tonight, this being my first day back on the trains after a short break between contract jobs. I'd planned to catch the 5.13pm, but was slightly late away from the new workplace and as it was such a lovely warm afternoon, wasn't really in a hurry to run just to get the last set of traffic lights, hence I missed the 5.13pm.

So I sauntered over to platform 5 to see the familiar sight, no 17.29 sitting there. I looked long and far into the shimmering heat of the yards, no sign of any V'Locity trains. Ahhh, I chuckled to myself, of course ... the first 'hot' day we get this week and of course, the trains break down.

Turns out I wasn't far wrong.

When we eventually got going (yes the train did arrive!), they had also cancelled the 5.36pm (so those people had to squeeze onto our train or the 5.47pm, if they were the hapless Lara travellers). The our conductor announced (whilst we were still at the platform) that whomever had pressed the emergency button in one of the carriages should go to the intercom system .... Ummmm how about he actually get out of the train as we are still at the platform?? Logic that obviously escapes me!

Along with numerous (and almost inaudible announcements on the platform about the delay), tonight was an excellent comedy of errors to welcome me back into the V/Line embrace.

When we did arrive at Geelong (around 18.40 or so) there was an announcement about the issue being caused by an earlier defective V'locity ... probably the 4.07?? I heard that got cancelled or something. Yay for the white elephant trains, they seem to be able to win design awards, but not work very well in hot weather :)

My travelling companion was blaming me, calling me a jinx or something. I was rather insulted! Surely V/Line can't be cocking up delibrately to provide me with material for the blog! :)

Quick few lines ......

2006-10-17T14:25:00.000+10:00

Not much V/Line travel in the past two weeks for the proverbial whinger, aside from two days last week and one day this week. One 'white elephant' trip to confirm mediocracy is the norm (51 minutes), Friday was able to catch the 5.13pm, which is a limited express with a first class, so much happiness there.

Yesterday was two off-peak trains, as I wasn't required in Melbourne until later & not the whole day, so dodgy old carriages (the ones with the hand-operated sliding doors) and one class - sorry I'm not a train-spotter so I can't tell you the exact designation or serial number.

I'm off work for the rest of the week as I'm between contract jobs so taking the opportunity to catch up on family stuff and personal stuff that has cropped up.

But this wouldn't be a proper blog without a whinge - my target is the Geelong City Council and the millions spent totally screwing up the road design through the CBD of Geelong and making it almost impossible to get around smoothly. Well done, someone to rival the incompetence of V/line and the State Government ... I'm trying to think of a name for an award to hand out ...

As for those who want to comment on this blog and have a go at me, well, it's pretty obvious by the title of the blog what the subject matter is, so why bother reading it if you don't agree. Go and start your own blog "vlinefanboi" or something. It's about as logical as going to a blog that complains about mother-in-laws when you are a mother-in-law and trying to expect people to listen to you! (true story, my sister told me!).

V'locity Trains = White Elephant

2006-10-02T20:52:00.000+10:00

After my trip on the 17.13 limited express train (that stops at Lara and is a loco-driven train), I've had my mind made up. I officially dub the V'locity trains as "white elephants". After a promising start and doing the journey in 45 minutes a few times, it seems that V/Line are content to run the service at 51 minutes.

Unfortunately, that's the time that a loco-driven express can do it, and at 55 minutes with a stop at Lara, the 17.13 comes pretty close. Tonight we did the journey from Southern Cross (spencer st) to Werribbee in 28 minutes, again pretty much the time that the V'locity does it.

From Werribee to Lt River in 8 minutes (only 2 minutes behind the V'locity time) and each waypoint that I'd timed on the 17.29 V'locity, the loco-driven 17.13 was only a minute or two behind.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much, but in all honesty, these 'fast' trains should be doing the journey consistently at 45 minutes or less otherwise they are white elephants.

Why? Well simply because if we are not getting faster speeds then passengers (not customers!) are losing out as the trains are not as 'great' as V/Line would like us to think. They're noisy (brake noises & ambient cabin noise), the seats are not that comfy, there is no way to shut out the very bright afternoon sun and last but not least, there is no first class carriage.

Ok so I'm elitist, but I like my first class and I PAY for it. If I don't have access to a LARGE reclining seat, curtain to shut the sun out, and tray to put a laptop or write on & lack of 'plebs' around me, then at least make the journey FAST (ie 45 mins or least). V/Line can't even do that.

Hopefully I'll be moving jobs again soon, closer to Spencer St and I'll be aiming for the 5.13pm or 4.40pm if I can swing it occasionally. V/Line can keep it's White Elephant 'Flagship' service. It sucks like Echuca.

Wednesday of Woe

2006-09-27T20:41:00.000+10:00

Been off sick last two days and last week I drove/tram 3 days, so today was my first day back on the V/line. Also bit the bullet and bought the $820 10 week 1st Class ticket.

As usual the 6.20am was fine, no probs there.

Not so the 17.29. They lost a V'locity train and in the end herded us all onto 4 V'locity carriages instead of the usual six, as well as being several minutes late to depart. People standing and a slow trip home meaning we are over 20 minutes late ... 45 minute "Flagship" service V/line style!

Conductors ... a coveted job!

2006-09-24T18:16:00.000+10:00

This is more a story of an overheard conversation rather than a typical 'whinge' blog entry.

The last few days of last week I travelled via Yarra Trams from Port Melbourne to the CBD, as I stayed up in Melbourne due to work commitments.

Due to working a rather insane 17-hour work day on Thursday, and after a few hours of zombie state at work on Friday morning, my boss told me to go home. Whilst I was standing at the Swanston St/Collins St "super" tram-stop, I couldn't help but smile at the following exchange between two Yarra Trams employees (the ones who for some reason are at most of the super-stops now, they don't seem to be ticket-inspectors?)

1st Yarra tram guy: "How's it going "
2nd Yarra tram guy: "Yeah good, trying to get through the next few months without any more sickies, otherwise i get a warning"
1YTG: "oh yeah why's that? Didn't I hear something about V/Line hiring?"
2YTG: "Yeah yeah, that's where I want to apply to, want to keep a good record"
1YTG: "yeah that conducting business, have the whole train to yourself, that's the ticket"
2YTG: " yeah travel up country, get put up into hotels overnight, it's a prime job"

And so on the conversation went. To be honest, I never really thought about why people would be conductors or whether it had perks etc, but I guess to a tram employee it obviously does!

However I do have to wonder about the future of conductors on country-line trains, especially with the inability to traverse the carriages on the V'Locity trains on express services and with the impending introduction of the 'smart-card' ticketing service that will finally intergrate the country and metropolitan ticketing system.

Interesting times. I'm back on the trains this week (I think, depends on work).

Flagship 45 minutes .... well sort of ... almost.

2006-09-19T18:54:00.000+10:00

Apologies for being a bit absent lately, work plus some family stuff have taken priority. However I have been diligently observing the performance of the 17.29 "Flagship" 45 minute service from Melbourne to Geelong the eight or so times I've managed to catch it in the previous few weeks.

Okay I will admit to being fairly anally retentive and timing a few journeys with selected waypoints to build up an average view of the journeys. It's been quite interesting to see where the bottlenecks and delays are on the nights when the "Flagship" service fails to deliver on it's promised six minute saving. So far its running on an average hit and miss of 60% late, but early days I guess.

On average, the trip from Werribee>Geelong (including one stop of approximately a minute and a bit at Nth Geelong) takes around 18 to 19 minutes. That's pretty good.

Unfortunately the bad bit is the fact it can take upwards of 35 minutes to get to Weribbee, which effectively negates any fast time.

So for the most part, the journey from Melbourne to Geelong on the "Flagship" service has been 51 minutes. To put this in perspective, both the "Sprinters" and Locomotive trains can do that time on an express run.

The cynical attitude could be that V/Line counts the 45 minutes from Nth Melbourne to Nth Geelong, however with each of the two "stops" only average 2 and a bit minutes, then I don't believe that rhetoric I've seen bandied about by V/Line. As for the official "5 minutes past arrival time is still on time" ... bollocks!

On the first night the 17.29 ran, we were 4 minutes late from departing, however the actual time it took from Melbourne (spencer st) to Werribee was only 21 minutes. So V/Line is capable of running in that time-frame, which if you add the 18 or 19 minutes from Werribee to Geelong, means that it is feasible to run a 40 minute service.

What I suspect prevents this is the fact that V/Line has to share with Connex for that whole first half of the journey plus worry about not catching up to the 17.13 Limited Express (which is a locomotive-drawn train that stops at Lara). However what happened to the "passing loops" that supposedly would allow a fast train to pass a slower train ahead of it??

I'll give it a few more weeks before passing final judgement on the success of the multi-million dollar upgrade that we've been waiting the past 4 years for.

Couple of other quickies: I'm starting to get tired of V/Line packing us all onto the last few carriages of the train just to "give room for Nth Melbourne passengers". They may as well start allocating seats if they are going to get that organised.

And once again tonight we had the absurdity of the conductor announcing "customers .blah blah blah" For the love of the english language, WE ARE NOT CUSTOMERS WE ARE PASSENGERS! Please tell me how by standing at the door pressing a button to get out I can be referred to as a CUSTOMER?? I am not buying anything! (except maybe a ticket to the mental asylum!)

Interestingly I've overheard fellow commuters and PASSENGERS complaining about the unreliability of the morning "Flagship" 45 minute service (the 7.17) which is often up to 20 minutes late. Ah well, thankfully the morning trains I catch (6.03, 6.20 or 6.44) are for the most part on time or a little earlier than usual, which one would expect given that they should be able to up the speed slightly on the new track/signals, at least until Werribee.

That's it for me for now, I'm not on the trains again until Friday I think, as the project I've been working on at work "goes live" (in software terms) Thursday night, so I'll be driving up and catching a tram in from a friend's place.

If I can work out how to do tables in this blog, I'll try and post some times up for the journeys I've recorded thus far.

Comedy Gold!

2006-08-28T21:19:00.000+10:00

Seriously, the last week is proving that I don't have to go out of my way to think of petty whinges to write this blog, V/Line manages to provide enough material that it almost writes itself.

I'm pretty tired tonight, after having worked all weekend again, so I will keep it succinct as my bedtime beauty sleep is calling me (I need many hours ... I'm an ugly mofo).

I was planning to catch the 6.28pm tonight, however arrived early enough for the 6.08pm. Bad call, apparently V/Line has a problem with losing drivers now.

I'm serious.

The conductor blew her whistle, waved her hand for several minutes (to signal that we were departing) before realising it was all for naught. There was no driver as she embarrassingly advised us several times, assuring us that surely he couldn't be far away.

6.08pm .... 6.11pm, 6.18pm ..... 6.25pm before she announces again that on Platform 3 the 6.28pm is available for those passengers who want to catch that STOPPING ALL STATIONS train as opposed to the 6.08pm which is an express .... OOPS.

So I jump off and walk briskly to the 6.28pm. Thankfully it has a 1st class carriage (unlike the 6.08pm) so I'm not too fussed by the change of trains. Just glad she finally admitted she had no clue where the driver was and no advice as to a replacement.

Wonderful service V/Line, on top of last Friday's classic shenaningans. Comedy gold.

I can't wait until the much trumpeted new timetable with FAST trains starts next week. I've said it before and I will say it again ... CHAOS will reign! (where is Maxwell Smart when you need him!).

Stay tuned for the next thrilling installment!

Almost a perfect week ...

2006-08-25T16:37:00.000+10:00

Long story short, I have to thank V/Line for my unexpected day off today. I've been working some long hours and 7 days a week (and will be working this weekend too). So I've been lacking whinges due to being tired and fairly immune to anything that would normally provoke a vitrolic outpouring into this blog.

Having said that, this week has been a good week by V/Line standards for me. The 6.20am has been more or less like clockwork and even seemingly arriving earlier than normal, or perhaps I've been walking more quickly to work? I varied from the 6.28pm in the evenings, the 4.55pm one day (oh happy days they were when that was my regular train) to the 5.29pm.

This morning I managed to drag myself on time for the 6.20am as per usual. I have this routine timed to perfection so that as I'm walking up the back stairs of Geelong train station as the 6.20am pulls into Platform 1. It is kind of like synchronised swimming without the pool or swimmers or if I'm running late & running up the platform, the elegance.

I'm not sure if that analogy makes any sense at all, but it made me laugh.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had a bad feeling when the 6.20am was late arriving and crawled into the station. We got on, but it wasn't long before the conductor told us to get off as the locomotive was defective and they would replace it.

I wondered if there was any link to two days of rain and the breakdown. Maybe the locomotives don't like the wet, after all it has been one of the driest winters on record.

I thought to myself that this would probably take them a long time, so I went to get on the 6.44am which was just sitting at platform 3, idling away. Wrong move! They took the locomotive from this train and ... it sat in the yards for at least another 30 minutes before finally it docked & the train left 40 minutes or so late.

In the meantime the 6.44am & following trains from Marshall and South Geelong were also held up.

I didn't actually stick around for the outcome, I stalked off in digust around 6.50am. Heard later on radio and the website of the Age what had happened.

So no doubt there were several hundred rather peeved Geelong commuters. Hopefully none of those were caught up in the Connex and city loop drama this morning either (where the excellent security at Melbourne Central couldn't prevent a man jumping on the tracks and running through to Flagstaff). Be alert not alarmed! Where is my fridge magnet that Little Johnnie sent me ... that will keep the bad terrorists away!

I had intended to drive to work, but I thought better of that idea and came home. Around 8.30am I considered driving as most of the morning traffic would have dispersed by then, but seeing as I'm working this weekend again, I figured I'd take the karmic offering of the universe and chill out for the day.

No thanks to V/line. And allegedly the new timetable starts up next week. I predict one thing .... CHAOS WILL REIGN! .

Fast Trains sometime soon? Yeah Right!

2006-08-21T13:27:00.000+10:00

I'm back on the trains this week, after staying up in Melbourne for most of last week.

It was a nice break from V/Line, but unless I make the move permanently to Melbourne, they will still be my main option to commute.

The introduction of the new FAST trains may be further delayed if this article is on the money:

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20194535-661,00.html

Being in IT (and specifically Testing) as my profession. One of the imperatives is to examine everything in the project and see how it will be affected by changes. Something as basic as whether existing locomotives are compatible would be right up there as a requirement. So how was this missed?

To be honest, I think this project was pie-in-sky stuff, they should have just stuck with the track & signals upgrade and adding new carriages and locomotives to the existing fleet.

Pathetic as usual

2006-08-15T13:09:00.000+10:00

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, this contract job has kept me darned busy - just crashed through the working 7 days barrier and it wasn't pretty.

Haven't had much cause for a really whinge since being back on the train. Of course there is the regular annoyances like having to travel on a one-class train in peak hour. I reckon they should make at least one half of one carriage exclusively for 1st class ticket holders. Am I being elitist? No, but I do pay a premium compared to the economy ticket holder and I am being cheated out of that value.

Then there is the neat trick that V/Line pulls almost everytime I catch the 5.13pm service. Usually it is a minute or two late leaving. Then sits in the yards near the Lonsdale St Overpass for several minutes before finally getting a signal to move onto Nth Melb.

No wonder they are going to measure the forty-five minute "Flagship" service from Nth Melb to Nth Geelong.

Some nights it takes almost 10 minutes to get from Spencer St (aka Brack's Southern Cross Folly) to Nth Melb. Whilst I understand it is peak time, you'd think with those many tracks, switches and platforms that a service wouldn't have to wait so long between two stations so close together.

These are just general complaints, but par for the course and the long suffering commuter usually just cops them on the chin as part of the 'service' we get.

The other thing I'd bring up is from a feedback comment on the previous blog entry. Yes I have noticed that we are being referred to as "customers" rather than "passengers". I suspect V/Line is attempting to make us feel warm and fuzzy by such terminology.

Unfortunately as far as I'm concerned it is incorrect english. A customer is someone who can purchase a good or service. Whilst a person on a moving vehicle is a "passenger". We are only "customers" when we actually are in the process of purchasing the ticket.

And as the feedback pointed out, 'customer' denotes we actually have a choice, when clearly our 'custom' is quite captive!

On to last night's events. Of which I can whole heartedly point out are totally my own fault, but would have occurred to the poor souls on the 5.13pm anyway, if I hadn't gotten on the cursed train in the first place.

It was raining, and I jogged into Spencer Street Station (aka Brack's & Bachelor's White Elephant Southern Cross). I immediately saw the 5.13pm was still at the platform (I had intended to catch the 5.29pm) and it was 5.20pm.... needless to say when I heard a whistle I jogged faster and jumped on the train, as the door was still open and there was a gaggle of conductors, customer service officers and train crew, so didn't look like it was pushing off too soon.

I sat down ... pleased that I'd gotten the earlier train.

Then cognitive reasoning returned and comprehension dawned on me that perhaps this wasn't such a wise move after all. As the minutes crept by and the conductor announced a delay, my inner voice urged and begged me to flee the doomed train and make haste to platform 14 for the 5.29. It was like a prophetic vision.

Alas, I sat like a rabbit in a spotlight waiting for the fatal .222 bullet. At 5.33pm we finally departed. And then sat in the yards for another 3 minutes (I timed it). No chance of getting home this side of 6.30pm now.

Worse still, there was a gaggle of teenage girls carrying on like pork chops nearby and all of us had to endure their ignorant and disregard for their fellow passsengers (customers?).

Finally the horror ride was over and I was first to alight the back carriage (on the correct side, when the train had come to a complete stop) and into the car park via the rear stairs at Geelong.

Unfortunately it was to the remaining cars trying to get out of the carpark from the 5.29pm which had obviously arrived just a few minutes before us. About 8 minutes later I managed to get out of the car park and home at about 7pm after a quick stop at the supermarket for some comfort food and a strong drink.

Pathetic V/line. I wonder how we are going to be treated when the new timetables come into effect in a few weeks. I predict mass chaos and I will make a wager that the "45 minute Flagship service" will very rarely reach that target. Call me a cynic.

I actually think that those V'locity trains can do that express Nth Melb to Nth Geelong in 40 minutes or less, if given a clear run through from Newport to Werribbee. Unfortunately we have the suburban lines to compete with.

So, for the rest of this week I am boycotting V/line, even though I have paid for my ticket through until the end of September. At least I can get some value from the ticket by catching the trams as I am staying at a friend's apartment whilst he is away interstate for work.

Let me know of your travel woes!

Classic V/Line

2006-08-01T18:49:00.000+10:00

I've been letting a few things slide in my first few weeks back, warming up to a really good whinge. The three months of cartharsis takes a really good stuff-up to break through and get the fingers tingling to write up a blog entry.

However the effort this morning for the 6.44am from Geelong was abysmal. The alleged reason was 'technical difficulties with the locomotive' however I suspect perhaps someone was late for work to drive a train! (pure speculation, but the loco was quite happily driven up to and attached to the carriages wasn't it??)

Anyway, so the 6.44am was actually the 7.06am or thereabouts .... sometimes these things cannot be helped I know, particularly when V/Line has all these NEW extra trains, that could perhaps alleviate the obvious stress and lack of time to properly maintain the existing fleet. Call me a cynic!

Luckily my training was at 9.00am rather than 8.30am, so it didn't matter that I was over 30 minutes late thanks to V/line by the time I actually walked in the door.

I didn't bother to rush for the 5.13pm tonight, as the record for that Very Fast Train hasn't been good when I have been catching it. Nor really for the 5.29pm, which is stuck over all the way on Platform 14 these days. I have heard that the 4.40pm has been running fairly smoothly these days, but unfortunately my care-free 7.5 hour work days that allowed me to catch that service are no more, so I have to persevere with the later services.

The only other thing to note is some of the older carriages are now sporting automatic doors rather than being manual handle openers. I suppose this is to prevent the really stupid people who obviously open doors and fall out on the wrong side of platforms that we hear about on all the announcements about exiting the train!

Too bad they couldn't spend a bit more money and fix up the heating/air-con at the same time.

Well I'm Back .........

2006-07-22T10:41:00.000+10:00

So said a particular character in a novel (and movie) at one stage. About the only thing I share in common with him is I do have slightly hairy feet.

It was a nice three months of being away from regular train travel (aside from 3 occasions), but in this day and age, you still have to find a way and means to pay the bills so I finally got my act together and secured some more gainful full-time employment. I've been back on V/Line since last Tuesday.

Aside from the rather large chunk that a 10-week 1st ticket took out of my credit card, there really haven't been any surprises ... Spencer St ... err Southern Cross Station still isn't finished, and we still seem to crawl along in certain places, so the idea of a fast express service between Geelong and Melbourne is still a joke.

I'm mostly riding on the 6.44am in the mornings and coming back on the 5.29pm (have to trek to platform 14 at Spencer & usually it's a few minutes late due to having to share that platform with Connex services).

But not too much whinging to be had thus far, early days yet however!

Where is the Whinger?

2006-05-16T12:24:00.000+10:00

Has he self-immolated in a ball of rage? Fallen off the perch? Given up on the 9 ~ 5 rat-race and found a mountain to sit on & become a Guru Hermit?

Well not exactly.

The boring answer is I had Easter>extra leave, got pretty sick, so had sick leave & then the only day I actually went to work I was made redundant along with 40 of my colleagues (such is the nature of IT sector at times).

Ironically I bought a montly ticket on that day too & when I eventually went home for the 4.07pm, you guessed it, it wasn't at the platform & was late arriving. Hehe, I had to laugh.

So I've been enjoying sleeping in for the past few weeks, but will be back on the train irregularly & hopefully regularly as I start looking for a job in earnest this week.

One year on ...

2006-04-17T18:09:00.000+10:00

It is around a year that I started writing this blog. I think almost to the day. A year ago the 16.40 was the train I complained most about, and a year later nothing has really changed.

I know several people who regularly complain to V/Line, so you can be sure they know customers are less than happy with the continual delays, cancellations etc. However as 'Cooper' has said in the past, as V/line is a monopoly, they have no fear of losing business really, unlike say a private bus operator who had to tender for a contracted route for example.

I've had a week or so off work and been busy with this and that and just noticed the comments on the blog over the last few days (for some reason my MSN Messenger has stopped alerting me to new emails ... )

I really can't add to anything more that has been said, other than what I have said in the past. I pay for a service that is not being delivered as much as it should be. I try not to "attack" the front line workers (ie conductors) my criticisms lay squarely with the senior management of V/Line and the State Government.

The priority should be public transport. It doesn't take much forethought to see that the days of private cars being a viable option for transport are fairly numbered. Government & operators should have a long range plan to improve infrastructure and linking services between Metropolitian and regional centres, it is the more efficient means of transporting people and goods.

As for the reasons why I do this blog, well ... as I've mentioned before, it is carthartic at times to vent a bit of spleen. I should not have to justify myself to individuals whose arguments consist of attacking me as a person for expecting to get a service I pay for. To speak on your level ... next time you go to McDonalds wearing your Moccassins and checked shirt, would you accept no fries & a stale bun served up to you 15 minutes after you ordered?

;-)

Tomorrow sees me back on the trains for the first time in a week. I better remember to buy a ticket tomorrow morning! Will return to more regular updates hopefully, although I do intend to stay in Melb a few nights the coming week or two.

Another Monday ...

2006-04-03T09:23:00.000+10:00

6.20am left bang on time from Geelong Station today & despite a slow spot between Werribee and Laverton, we arrived at Southern Cross right on time (if not a bit earlier). Which to be honest is fairly common for the morning trains in the past few weeks.

I'm not sure about the later peak trains in the morning from Geelong?

I really don't understand why it all falls apart in the afternoon peak? Maybe someone can explain that to me, but logically shouldn't the new trains coming on stream take the pressure off maintaining the existing fleet? Perhaps my thinking is too simplistic.

I realised I've been doing this blog on and off for about a year now, I wonder if things will settle down in the next year or in a years time will I be writing the same old type of entries that seem to annoy at least one person who has read the blog of late.

I really don't care how many people read this and I'm certainly not a narcisist, but mostly I aim to vent some spleen in a mostly humourous manner (think Grumpy Old Men). I think I have fair license to complain and whinge given the overwhelming evidence of incompetence of both the government departments and V/Line management in providing a sub-standard service.

In regards to other's opinions who seem to contradict mine, here's a link that might appeal to you (I know I laugh when I read what this guy writes), it's probably more up your alley.

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=banish

:)

An all quiet week?

2006-04-01T19:13:00.000+11:00

At least for the most part, the train services I caught during the past week were more or less on time. Crowded at times, yes, but mostly on time. I did hear some reports from a regular on the 16.07 that it had issues this week that apparently be solved by it becoming a 'Vulture' train. Hmmm yet another peak hour service without a 1st class service for those of us prepared to pay for that extra bit of comfort.

See how we go next week.

16.40 Friday Fun again

2006-03-26T09:55:00.000+11:00

If only picking the lottery tickets was as easy as picking that the journey home is going to be screwed up.

16.40 was late again docking for boarding, and whilst the minutes ticked by, suddenly (with no immediate announcement) the throng of unhappy commuters washed over the platform to where the 16.55 train & carriages were sitting.

It was then announced the 16.55 was now the 16.40. So dutifully like sheep, we all boarded. I sat with a older gentleman and we joked about the situation, truly it is the only way to deal with the farce that is daily commuting on V/Line.

Seems a few people were rightly confused as to which service we were on, as the 16.40 only stops at Nth Geelong and onwards. We had two V/line conductors, plus a senior V/Line customer service guy (who got on at Nth Melb). Train was pretty overcrowded.

Although we left late (by about 10 minutes I think), we managed to scrape into Geelong station only 13 minutes later than normal. I managed to negotiate the carpark & get out fairly quickly.

I'm thinking of doing a bit of 'viral marketing' ... anybody want a T-shirt that says "V/Line sucks" - have your say at vlinewhinger.blogspot.com.

:)

16.40: The service V/line doesn't give a Sh#t about.

2006-03-24T09:11:00.000+11:00

16.40 again was reasonably full last night, but more or less on time, making it an almost normal week for once.

However 'Cooper' has reported that according to the V/Line Customer Service line person that he speaks to on a regular basis, those travellers on the 16.40 service should expect many cancellations after the Commonwealth Games finish today.

Why? well, because the 16.40 service is the 'easiest' to cancel (due to the fact it only stops at Nth Geelong, Geelong & Sth Geelong). Cold comfort to the 300 or more people that catch the service.

I think most people don't mind if a train is cancelled (well much anyways) but what gets people hot under the collar is not finding out until you actually get to the platform when at times the information is known well in advance.

Again 'Cooper' posed the question to V/line Customer Service "why don't you update your website with the information about the 16.40 being cancelled so people don't rush down expecting a train there" ... apparently even though they know at times as early as 14.30 that the 16.40 is not run, they wont update the website because it is "too much effort".

Ok, this is my rant now ... I work in IT, I know for a fact it is not that hard to update a website. Why have a website that has an area specifically for bulletins/news/customer information if its TOO MUCH EFFORT to keep your customers informed!!!

Even when calling at 3.00pm or 4.00pm and specifically asking the V/Line Customer Service line if the 16.40 is running, Cooper has been given the run around.

In this technological age of Internet/Sms & mobile technology, V/Line is left far behind. What are their senior management doing about it? What is our State Government doing about it? A well thought out solution to inform customers as early as possible assists people in being inconvenienced!

So the end result is they'd rather allow people to arrive and stand around until someone remembers to make an announcement or write on a whiteboard.

As an added thought, why aren't V/Line running the new 'Vulture' Trains on the 16.40? Surely these Very Fast Trains, should be running on an express service like the 16.40 ... oh I dunno, because maybe they will be able to do the journy in 40 minutes or so?? but no, instead lets do the opposite to logic and run the Vulture trains on STOP ALL STATION services, so y'know ... they can never actually go fast.

The Perfect Train!

2006-03-23T08:15:00.000+11:00

Last night (Wed night) I hung around a bit in Melb and socialised, and sauntered down to Southern Cross in time for the 19.20 back to Geelong, in the process I actually found that I could enter the station via Lt Collins St as they've put another set of traffic lights there (I feel sorry for motorists ... where pedestrians conveniently went UNDER the road in the tunnels, now we press the button and stop the traffic).

Pretty much nobody in 1st class on the 19.20, great. I also realised that the travel time is very subjective, even though it is a stop all stations train, it doesn't seem to bother me. Must be a peak-hour thing.

6.20 this morning ran fine (as it almost always does), social experiment #1 put my bag on the floor but nobody sat next to me today, fatty boombahs moved further down the carriage.

How did peak hour run Wed night?

Hump Day

2006-03-22T12:03:00.000+11:00

Well 2 "reasonably" okay days in the afternoon (as compared to last week), aside from the over-crowding.

This morning ran OK, I was nice enough to let a woman who got on at Weribbee (and flashed a red card to conductor ... what's the red identity card??) to sit next to me. I'd done the seat on bag trick ... I know, totally bad of me ... however it did prevent me from being "fatty boombahed", I've had my share of that thanks.

Good call on some of the comments on yesterday's blog. Sounds like the Bendigo line has it worse than us. Good to see "Weasel" Batchelor spinning more bull-crap on stuff he clearly has no idea on.

And "Cooper" you are absolutely correct about V/Line. They have no reason to give good service, as there are no repurcussions for the CRAP they give us and call it 'service'.

Maybe if senior V/Line management had to travel on trains ONLY or received performance penalties or salary reductions for consistent issues then we might see some changes.

Free trip to Eastern Victoria!

2006-03-21T08:04:00.000+11:00

Bit on the tired side today, stayed up past my bedtime. Thankfully the train was deserted this morning, so had a seat to myself & no annoying morning "chatters" around me either. I don't remember much of the journey, and woke up with a start as we approached 'southern cross' station. Nearly earnt myself a trip into the countryside!

We were on time this morning (for the 6.20am), not quite as early as yesterday, but as usual just proves the majority of mornings seem to run smoothly. Just the evenings are a fiasco, although last night was not too bad, with the 16.40 departing ONLY 5 minutes late (as noted by a feedback comment on the previous blog entry ... and 'Sain person' put your glasses on mate).

Let's see if the 16.40 is actually AT the platform when I get down there tonight.

Update:
16.40 was there! Left a tad late due to "signalling issues in the spencer st area".

Nth Melb 1st class was packed, people sitting in the aisles, and in conductor's van. Apparently the 16.07 failed to stop at Nth Melb ... ooops. Reasonably on time. Car park shenanigans as usual at Geelong (another whole topic I could discuss!)

I'm so stupid ?

2006-03-20T08:14:00.000+11:00

Got a feedback comment on the previous blog entry:

"overcrowding could be avoided if unhappy souls drove their cars instead of bitching about something they know nothing about."

Well I'm sorry anonymous, but your logic is so flawed that it deserves a blog entry in response. First point is how are we supposed to know the trains will be overcrowded as we do not have access to the same sort of empirical evidence that V/Line has.

Then there's this thing called the Commonwealth Games, you know, where the government has been telling us to all catch public transport and DONT drive?

F#$K you Mr Anonymous, I DO know that I PAY to be taken by train from Geelong to Melbourne and that the service in the past 4 years has become WORSE. That's what I know. I don't know what fairy-land you live in, but I think you need a reality check.

Driving is not an option for me, for the simple reasons of (a) Petrol prices (b) Parking prices & (c) Revenue-raising cameras. Not to mention the other stupid drivers on a road that should be 110 km/h speed limit or more (that's a whole other subject to discuss).

Thanks to connexwhinger for adding his comments too, at least he can see the logic clearly.

Anyway, I'm not "wounded" this morning (as Mr Anonymous calls me), as V/Line is actually on time (6.20am service) and I have the added pleasure of hearing a woman get told off by the conductor for getting on at Werribee.

I'm not sure whether she works for yarra trams or not, but I've been meaning to question V/Line how they can get on as they are essentially suburban travellers. Well, from the conversation it appear they are not supposed to be travelling during the peak hour (which is defined as any train that arrives at Melbourne up until 9.30am.

Not holding my breath for tonight ... no doubt some adventure will ensue! :)

Another week of woe

2006-03-17T08:05:00.000+11:00

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.

Timetables? just for show!

2006-03-09T07:12:00.000+11:00

Ok a couple of updates.

I bought a 1st class ticket again (after much consideration).

Remember when I complained about some peak hour services not having a 1st class service (I don't count the 'Vulture' trains (aka V'locity) as 1st class for reasons previously mentioned) and the lady at the ticket office said to me "we advise people when they purchase a 1st class ticket that SOME peak hour services do not have a specific 1st class service".

Well when I bought my ticket the day before last, from the EXACT same lady in the ticket office who had given me this advice ... she didn't tell me that AT ALL. So effectively she LIED! If V/Line were interested in 1st class customers, then they would be sure to issue a bulletin advising of the situation, not leave the staff to just make up stories that they don't remember to stick by even when it came out of their own mouths!

I chopped and changed trains recently & noticed that some services in the morning that previously used to have two 1st class carriages on them, no longer do. Great customer service V/Line!

Last night I must have walked fast down Collins St, because I actually made it to the 16.40 in about 10 minutes from my workplace. Just as well I caught that train, because for whatever reason (it was never announced) after Werribee we ran at a snails pace & ended up arriving at Geelong nearly 20 minutes late.

What good are timetables if you cannot rely on them? Come on V/line ... you can't blame signals, because they've just been totally upgraded! You can't blame a slow train in front, because the tracks now have "passing lanes" so if our express service is being held up by a slow stop all stations train ... then make them pause & let us pass at the appropriate place!

An express service should take 55 minutes not 75! I suppose it could have been worse, they could make the 16.40 a Vulture train service & then we'd be over 30 minutes late for sure!

(another great story I heard about the vulture trains is they actually SWAP the front carriage with back, instead of using the driver cabin at the back carriage & also the locks are easily "tampered with" with anyone who has that knowledge!)

Vulture trains are so named because they are circling the dead carcass of V/line!

Update:
A friend sent me a link to an article on the Age today, seems the Geelong Line isn't the only dodgy one that people are complaining about. Good to see our fellow travellers on the Bendigo line are not being left out of the wonderful service that V/Line provides:

Age Article

Predicting V/Line's Bad Service ... not hard!

2006-03-02T08:50:00.000+11:00

Last night it seems that my decision to not rely on V/Line was well justified, as the 4.40pm service was cancelled and replaced with buses. Apparently not enough buses as after the last one left people were still standing waiting.

The 4.55pm (which usually terminates at Geelong) did not get extended through to Sth Geelong (which in most circumstances it does if the 4.40pm is cancelled). Great service yet again!

This morning I caught my old regular train (6.44am) which always used to have two 1st Class and for a while now it seems to have lost that 2nd carriage. I was not surprised to find the carriage was packed even before the first pickup at Nth Geelong. Pity the 1st class passengers wanting to get on at Lara, no wonder on the 6.20am 1st class carriage has many getting on at Lara, they would never get a seat on the next service.

I can't understand why a peak hour service that so obviously enjoys good patronage actually loses resources.
Thankfully I only have to survive tonight's journey home, although I may see if I can get a ride home again with my friend who is driving.

I wonder if V/Line actually did a customer service survey they would actually get any good results or even satisfactory!

EVENING UPDATE

Well V-Line gets me again tonight. I leave work at 4.35pm to catch the 4.55pm train, only to find the lovely customer service people writing up on the whiteboard that the 4.55pm is now replaced by buses. Too bad I have to walk another city block up to the coach terminal in about ten minutes ... F$%K that for a joke. So I wait around for the 5.13pm (which of course is the V'locity train one class, so my 33% extra premium 1st class ticket is made worthless again).

We get to Nth Melb, and wait ... and wait, I look my watch 5.23pm ... so in 10 minutes we've managed to get from Melbourne to Nth Melbourne, yep its gonna be another long trip home.

Finally walk in the door at 6.35pm ... Two hours door to door, thanks V-line! Reliable service once again. My first class ticket expires on the 7th of March ... I have to seriously think about the value I'm getting out of it now.

A new month starts but the same crap service continues.

2006-03-01T11:47:00.000+11:00

V/Line got me again this morning.

I planned to travel to work a bit later this morning, as I had a guest stay over last night & didn't exactly want to make them rush to leave at 6.00am this morning!

So anyway, I arrive in time for what I think might be the 7.46am or thereabouts. Standing on the platform for about 2 minutes & an announcement comes over advising that the next train has been cancelled and replaced with a road coach.

Murphy's Law!

We eventually get to Melbourne just after 9.00am or so.

I heard that the 7.21am V'locity service stopped in between Corio & Lara for no discernible reason (nor was one given for the delay). So perhaps this morning was just a bad one for V/line.

Nothing new, more crap service for passengers.

Only good thing was the coach was more or less there, so no real waiting around.

Needless to say, V/Line gets a big fat raspberry from me in regards to trusting them to get me home on time & with no hassles tonight. I've arranged a lift with a friend who is driving.

Could I run a better train service?

2006-02-27T18:50:00.000+11:00

I thought a comment on my previous blog entry deserved a full reply here.

'Anonymous' wrote " Look you guys that are having a go at Vline, do you think that you could make trains run on time?" (check the comments on 3rd Day Lucky blog for where this came from).

Mr Anonymous, nowhere have I said that I'm eddie the train expert. But at times you don't have to be an expert to comment on the blatant inefficiencies of a service that I'm paying a premium price for. It is my right as a consumer, I and many hundred or thousands of Geelong commuters simply are not getting a reasonable AND reliable service.

Example: Today the 4.40pm (which is supposed to run as an 'express' service between Nth Melb & Nth Geelong) stopped for no apparent reason (nor was one announced) at Little River.

I've often thought (given the incredible overcrowding on the 4.40pm) that V/Line could run a service at 4.20 or thereabouts, being between the 4.07pm and 4.40pm and it may just alleviate some of the congestion, especially when one of the services is cancelled (invariably the 4.40pm).

Another example, is the comments reflected by senior v/line management not even knowing that they ran a 1st class service between Geelong & Melbourne. In relation to this, many services run a goods van OR the 1st class carriage has a goods area (where the conductor sits) so passengers with larger freight items can carry book them in.

With the introduction of the V'locity trains during peak hour times, not only is it the 1st class passengers who are at a disadvantage, but anyone who wants to transport larger freight items (such as bikes, pets or bigger loads of suitcases). A recent example is the guy who had to catch a taxi from Geelong back to Werribee after taking his pet to a vet in Geelong, because there were no more services stopping at Werribee that was able to transport his pet for him. (Thanks to 'da writa' for informing of that tid-bit from his local paper).

So all these millions of dollars spent, there is less service than when I started travelling over 4 years.

I don't blame the grunts on the front line (for example the conductors or service people or the drivers) but I do blame the head up their arse senior managers who clearly don't understand or care about the travelling public being inconvenienced by their inept and illogical decisions.

Someone wake me up when the V'locity trains actually break the speed record between Melbourne and Geelong .... as far as I understand (and I stand to be heartily corrected) it is still held by a Steam Engine & set in the 1950's ......... running the V'locity's on stop all stations aint gonna break that anytime soon .....

Could I run a better Train Service?? Well, maybe, I'd certainly give it a try, couldn't be worse than the present managers.

However, the solution is not a cheap one. Nobody in government wants to commit to the billions of dollars we should be spending on public transport infrastructure 'cos simply, there aint the votes in it. Easier to whack a car-park tax in the CBD or put speed cameras (oh sorry .. ROAD SAFETY) cameras and watch the dollars roll in.

:)

Here's a more personal response to the above comment from "anonymous" from a long time commuter, he asked me to post here especially for him.

Dear anonymous,

The bloody railways are supposed to make the trains run on time.

That is their sole purpose.

We pay them large amounts of money for them to keep to the schedules they have posted. And I remember a happy time when they used to do it.

We ask nothing more nothing less than they do what they say the will do - timetables.

If they can't keep the schedules, then change the bloody timetables to reflect reality. It ain't rocket science.

They used to do it before Mr Kennett sold the railways to some people who thought the point of railways was to make money.

The point of railways is to move people from one place to another at the time you say you will do it in return for money - timetables. I don't care about the age of the equipment. I don't care about the condition of the stations. Just get me to my destination at the time you said you would.

The whole bloody point of the railways is to run on TIME!

Mussolini could do it. Is it beyond our current batch of failed school teachers and public servants?

Apparently.

Which is why I moved to Melbourne.

Hello to all my fans.

Da Writa!

Fawlty "V/Line" Towers

2006-02-24T09:24:00.000+11:00

Well after a long absence, I'm back.

My whinging abilities have been rejuvenated in a two day crucible of V/Line failures and abject incompetance.

This blog will end up being too long so I will try to keep to point form.

1st Class ticket holders may as well give up on peak hour as V/Line's official policy is that they don't care that V'locity trains are one class and essentially anyone holding a 1st class ticket is travelling at a 'premium' but getting less service. Here's a few reasons why:

* Leg room is less than 1st class (I'll measure it when i get a chance)
* no Trays on back of seats
* Seats do not recline
* no footrests
* seats are marginally smaller in width.

The only "extra" is that they have a middle armrest which means you can make the fatties who sit next to you suffer instead of squashing you with their blubber.

(sorry I'm not feeling politically correct today)

Also, the new trains do not have curtains, and the window tint is inadequate to cut out the glare from the afternoon sun.

How the hell these trains got into service I do not know, they certainly do not meet the requirements of Geelong commuters. Especially when people are still standing up on the 6-car configurations.

For 2 nights I have attempted to catch the 4.55pm & both times have ended up on a V'locity train (and other people have had to stand up on this service, luckily I got a seat).

The simple fact is that if V-line is selling 1st class tickets, then they have a duty to ensure at least during peak hours, there is enough 1st class seats available. It is just not acceptable. And there has been NO official communication to 1st class ticket holders. I had to go and ask at the ticket office at Geelong. Somehow after all the aggravation of cancelled services, over-crowding and being late home I managed to stay reasonably polite & civil.

Outside of peak times, I don't have an issue with having a 1st class ticket & travelling with one class (ie economy).

I suspect that eventually they will just make 1st class carriages one class or eliminate them entirely, but that is just speculation.

I also heard that the 6.54am service today broke down at the station and was spraying oil on people who were unfortunate to be close to the locomotive. I know this for a fact as a work-mate has oil flecks all over his shirt. My advice to him was to buy a new shirt and charge V/Line for the expense.

You could not write comedy as good as the incompetence and contempt that V/Line demonstrates to it's customers. Basil Fawlty, move over, V/Line has it all over you!

yes I know many of you would say "move to Melbourne" like "Da Writa" a commuter of 15 years has. However, that is not the point, as personal circumstances prevent that for the moment and I have a reasonable right to expect to get what I pay a premium price for. We as Australians accept crap service too much.
I think politicians, bureaucrats and anyone in charge of transport decision making should have to travel on the services they are in charge of, and travel regularly, not just as a PR stunt.

Anyway, I'm back ... although part of me wishes I don't have material to write this blog with, however with the Commonwealth Games on soon, I can only predict V/Line will have ample opportunity to demonstrate their incompetance.

/whinge mode off!

From Apathy to Resigned Frustration in 1 Easy Step

2005-10-18T18:28:00.000+10:00

Greetings & Salutations from the apathetic whinger!

I've just clocked up my first month in my new job, and have seen a number of V/line incidents (including the unfortunate death of a foolish young girl which then resulted in the inconvenience a week later of train drivers deciding that bunches of flowers caused them stress, so they called a one day strike without warning).

However, I've been able to bear the usual 2 or 3 times a week of typical inconveniences until tonight.

Not only was the 4.40pm late (track upgrade/signal upgrade of $millions & we still go slow?), but the train stops about 150m out from Geelong station for several minutes whilst apparently we wait for a Melb bound train to depart.

3 platforms to choose from at Geelong Station & an express train (already running late) is sitting idle for around 7 minutes in the middle of nowhere.

Well done V/Line!

$100's millionsin upgrades later and the "5 or so minutes" saved for a peak/express service is eaten up by sitting in the middle of nowhere!

Keep the comments rolling in ... we're almost up to 2+ years of disruptions & bad service ... roll on the Commonwealth Games in March next year, I'm sure it will all be fixed before then! (HAHAHA, yeah right!)

p.s. we'll never know the true cost of the upgrades/new trains, as V/Line & State Government have incorporated a subsidiary body called V/Line Passenger Pty Ltd, which holds all documents etc relating to the project, thus making it not subject to FOI legislation. Nice transperancy & accountability there!

A week of Grace ..

2005-09-12T15:52:00.000+10:00

This week I don't really have much to whinge about simply because there will be no train travel for me, due to a changeover period between my old job and new job.

Even though it is $79 or so down the tube for not using the trains (as I am in the middle of a 10 week ticket), I'm not that worried.

Hopefully my fellow Geelong commuters will have a trouble free run this week .... *snort* ;-)

See you all on the flip-side.

Remember, September 19th is International Talk like a Pirate Day! (www.talklikeapirate.com) Arrrr mateys ;-)

3rd Day Lucky?

2005-09-07T20:02:00.000+10:00

Well Mr Peter Batchelor, Minister For Lack of Decent Public Transport, all I can say is this evening you should calling up V/Line and thanking them for actually running the 4.55pm service reliably and on time. It only took them 3 attempts.

Otherwise, you may have had 300+ fairly irate Geelong commuters rioting up Bourke St to Treasury Place & burning you out of your offices. No doubt at that time you were in air-conditioned limosine comfort cruising your way home with nary a care in the world for the poor public transport commuter.

Let's see: Monday, 4.55pm service leaves on time, stop 15 metres later. Many announcements later from the hapless conductor urging us to stay on the train, as the defective locomotive was going to be replaced, watching helplessly as the 5.13pm left ahead of us, "Da Writa" by chance lucked onto a friend of his who was driving to Footscray & made a quick detour to pick us up near Telstra Dome. I laughed as we jumped off the train & the conductor was yelling "If youse guys get off the train you're walking" Ahhh the irony.

We watched as two engines were still hooked up on the 4.55pm as we drove past Telstra Dome at 5.20pm.

Later, we saw the train at Laverton (still with two engines) limping towards Geelong. (we had stopped in Footscray as Da Writa's friend had to drop something off). It certainly wasn't going to be the quickest way home, but at least it was comfortable, air conditioned & not as aggravating.

Still, we had to deal with the 5.13/5.29pm traffic in the car park at Geelong. By the time I made it to my sister's house for dinner, it was two hours door to door (from work to Mt Duneed). Thanks V/Line!

Tuesday: Arrive for the 4.55pm ... notice large crowd milling. Not a good sign. Look further ahead to where the locomotive should be attached at the front of train. An empty space.

No announcements, 4.55pm comes and goes. 5pm, 5.10pm, some signs of action & finally we are away after a loco docks with the train. This time we are ahead of the 5.13pm service. However it means every man and his dog (literally) piles on at Nth Melb. Thank goodness Da writa and I secured a 1st Class seat. It is starting to get ugly even in 1st Class these days!

Once again, arrive late, this time only 20 mins.

Tonight, Da Writa and I squint in the afternoon sun & see not only a locomotive attached to our train, but about 4 others in the yards! So it seems they have a few spares after all.

All is good as we are away on time, and no stoppages. I do note that the train (at least 1st Class) is less crowded. Maybe twice bitten, thrice shy? As people wonder if the curse/jinx of the cancelled 4.40pm service has carried across to the 4.55pm

Hopeless. Appalling. I really cannot think of enough adjectives to describe the woeful service these past few nights.

The ironic thing is that there are probably some more casual commuters due to the high petrol prices testing out the idea of using public transport. V/Line has the chance to pick up more patronage (and heaven forbid make some more money to reinvest back into better infrastructure & rolling stock) yet seem to choose this exact opportunity to demonstrate to these newbies just why they drive to Melbourne from Geelong every day.

Well done V/line & ultimately, well done Mr Peter Batchelor for ensuring that our service has gotten worse, not better, in the past few years. Oh ... VFT?? is that dirty word now?

Apathy Inc.

2005-09-04T12:38:00.000+10:00

Ok so it has been over a month since my last entry.

Occasionally other things in life get in the way of a petty whinge about paying $794 for a 10-week ticket (that's for the premium 1st class v/line service) and having trains overcrowded, late, not heated and generally dismal performance all around.

I don't intend to make this a "personal" journal, however during this month there were more pressing needs in my life, namely to do with my family life. And also, an opportunity arose to change my employment situation, which is also something that I found was annoying the crap out of me.

One thing of note, is that the usually reliable 4.55pm service got changed to effectively be the 4.40pm service (delayed). So now 1st class is overcrowded, hence one must ensure an early arrival at Spencer St to get a decent seat.

Iif I were a 1st fare-paying customer getting on at a later station (say Nth Melb or Footscray), I'd be mildly annoyed to find no seats in 1st Class. Particularly when it seems that certain transport workers ( Vline staff, Connex or Yarra trams) get a free ride. In my view, they should have to either go back down into economy or give up their seat when required. Same goes for Economy "upgraders". Fortunately I've not lost out on a seat, I'd certainly like to know if V/line compensates customers in this regard. Probably not, I'd imagine that the excuse "a ticket doesn't guarantee a seat" would be trotted out.

The calm of a Zen-Master.

2005-07-24T10:58:00.000+10:00

Ok, so it is Sunday now and I will write about Friday night's journey home.

Generally I like to look on the positive side of life most of the time, this website is a "whinge" site I know, but I like to think most of my "blogs" are on the slightly humorous.

So, I headed for the 4.55pm train as per usual. I was alone tonight, as "Da Writer" (my normal travelling companion) had driven up as he was going to the other side of Melbourne for the weekend.

This past week, the 4.55pm Geelong train had been departing from platform 14, so the regular walk down Collins St had changed to a walk down Bourke St & entry via the Telstra Dome walkway end of the station.

As I came down onto the platform, I observed that there was quite a few more people on the platform than normal. I had to literally elbow my way through the crowd to get to the far end of the platform (as 1st Class carriage pulls up at the back).

4.55pm rolls around and no train (usually arrives before then), indeed the Connex Williamstown train hadn't even come through.

A rather harried announcement came over advising that the 4.55pm was going to be extended through to Sth Geelong ... which gave me the clue that the 4.40pm service must have been cancelled & this explained the crush of bodies on the platform.

5.00pm ... the platform announcer comes over the loudspeaker, his indian accent thick & sounding terribly stressed "The 4.55pm V/line service is now approaching" ... indeed it did seem that way, however the train approaching only had 3 carriages. People pushed forward attempting to board, a rather irate V/line conductor prevented some people from getting in the back carriage. I stepped back, as I had noticed people were already in the train as it arrived, which indicated to me that this was most likely *NOT* a service to Geelong but another country service.

This suspicion was confirmed when the loudspeaker crackled into life again and the indian accent sounded urgent instructions to stand away from the carriages as this was the NOT the 4.55pm service to Sth Geelong.

At this stage I saw an ex-workmate from a few years back and we retreated further down the platform & resigned ourselves to wait for the eventual arrival of our train.

It did arrive, around 5.15pm or so. My ex-colleague and I made sure we got on relatively quickly & secured a seat in 1st Class, as expected that carriage also filled up quickly, probably with alot of economy class people as in circumstances like this the conductors never check tickets.

We stopped at Nth Melb, but people who got on there pretty much got off the train again, there was just no seats & literally no standing room in between carriages.

Yet another V/Line debacle!

The arrival time at Geelong was around 6.20pm, only about 25 minutes late.

Vline: 1 vs Vlinewhinger: 0

2005-07-18T08:08:00.000+10:00

After a month of no train travel, Vline gets the first laugh at my expense. This morning is my first morning back on the train and usually I would have been in first class. Except the first class carriage was closed due to a "technical fault".

Thankfully nobody sat next to me in cattle class, so at least that was a small mercy.

Goes without saying that the 6.05am service was late, although now it is a regular train and not a "sprinter", that is to be expected. Anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes past the old arrival time.

I have some serious thinking to do about whether I make the move to Melbourne & eliminate trains entirely.

Whinging by Proxy ....

2005-07-06T07:26:00.000+10:00

Well, after several weeks of buses, the train service is back between Geelong and Melbourne. Yours truly is still travelling via Yarra Trams (and I have another 3 weeks!), however just two days and already V/Line has dropped the ball yet again & I'm receiving updates from workmates & a reader of this blog (yes I have one!) as to the shennanigans that have gone on thus far.

I'll repost this 'Anonymous' comment from blog: (it refers to Tuesday 5th of July)

Hi, love your blog.2nd day of trains being back and VLine's efficiency & customer service shines through. To let out some steam the 5.13pm train was cancelled. Don't know what the trouble was VLine never explained. Was advised to catch the 5.29 which was leaving from Platform 14 (so far away! - especially when you had to walk the Spencer Street Maze to get to Platform 6 in the first
place). I explained I needed to get to Sth Geelong and was told to wait for the 5.47. Since I catch the 6.20am waiting another 35+ minutes did not appeal. So many others and I crammed on the 5.29. (My sympathy goes out to those who got on at Nth Melbourne and had to stand up.) First the conductor said the 5.29 was keeping to the schedule & terminating at Geelong, but probably due to a lot of pressure 5 minutes later advised that we would stop at Sth Geelong. At least
that was something. Thanks for reading my whinge. Feel much better now.

Dear me, not exactly a ringing endorsement is it? So I'm not the only whinger out there! But wait, there's more. I spoke to a friend at work as he arrived earlier. Let's call him "Cooper" to protect his identity (why I don't know but it sounds good.) He catches the 6.05am service from Geelong in the mornings and generally aims for the 4.40pm home.

Yesterday he got a call before he left work from another workmate who catches the 4.07pm who told him that the 4.40pm was cancelled and replaced with a bus service. Given that the bus terminal is almost a whole city block further along Spencer St, as a commuter is it important to know where you need to head (also given the general chaos of the whole station being rebuilt currently).

So Cooper does the smart thing and lets his fingers do the walking & call V/Line's customer service line to ask if the 4.40pm service was indeed a bus or a train. "Oh it's definitely a train, the buses finished on the weekend" was the helpful response. "Are you sure about that, I have information that it has been replaced by a bus". Cooper was then informed that he'd best call Spencer St directly (and was given a number). Great customer service!

Cooper then calls Spencer St Station using the number given to him by V/Line customer service. In the midst of doing this, he receives a call from V/Line customer service (responding to an earlier complaint he had put in that morning about late service & the fact the 6.05am is no longer a sprinter train). So handily, he asks *this* customer service person who seems to have a clue & confirms with him that yes indeed the 4.40pm has been cancelled and replaced with a bus service.

Good grief, we live in the information age. How hard it is to have a dynamically updated website linked to the timetable system & an SMS alert system so commuters can be updated & not run around like headless chooks looking for their train/bus !!!

Cooper gave me a good analogy, if the private coach lines that replaced the trains consistently ran late, were never at the appointed stops on time, were run down etc, people would complain & the next time V/Line went to hand out tenders for a similar arrangement, most likely that private coach line would not get the gig ... so what's different about V/Line? Why aren't they accountable?

As commuters on a longer than hour journey, we shouldn't have to put with such shoddy service. As for the propaganda that gets spewed out that "things will be getting better", well try again, it has been nearly two years of disruptions to the service & things are getting worse not better.

Edit: I just got an update from "Da Writer" another Geelong>Melb commuter, who informed me that the 4.55pm service to Geelong last night apparently didn't stop at Corio (which it is scheduled to do) OOOPS! Seems a few of the drivers are a bit rusty! :)

The adventures of Bus-Man & his off-sider Tram-Boy

2005-06-18T12:49:00.000+10:00

After a long weekend, it was back to buses for a few weeks whilst more 'upgrades' are made to the Geelong line. I wonder if this means we might have the V'locity trains running before the end of this year? Certainly they seem capable of it, as evidenced by one sitting at Geelong Station for a few days this week!

One thing V/Line have got running smoothly is the replacement bus services. In fact, I've heard some commuters voice the opinion that they run a better bus service between Geelong & Melbourne than a train service.

Unfortunately for those of us with 'first class' tickets, we lose out a bit at these times. I'm not really complaining as my ticket ran out on the 15th, and I've been in Melbourne since then and catching a Yarra Tram to and from work.

Yep, I'm the stupid guy who can't put his ticket in the right way to be validated!

I had to assume that the tram breaking down on the way home on Thursday night was the Universe's subtle attempt at humour. Thankfully there was another one just behind it, so it was no real problem.

No Trains & Farewell V/Line

2005-06-13T23:07:00.000+10:00

Last week passed more or less uneventfully. As previously mentioned, the 4.55pm is quite a reliable train & the 5.28am usually gets us through no problems. Apart from the previous Monday on the 6.05am (30 minutes at Werribee) We were on time.

This week it is back to buses for at least a month.

However the buses will only be for this week for me, as next week I'll be venturing to work via Yarra Trams, so it could be fairly quiet on the blog front, although I'll post as I'll probably have a bit more time up my sleeve, being only 15-20 minutes away from work rather than 1hr 20mins or so as I am now.

Tuesday ...

2005-06-07T07:59:00.000+10:00

In an effort to beat any repeat of yesterday's rolling stoppages of signals by Connex workers, I managed to get moving to catch the first train from Geelong (5.28am).

Apart from a complete stop near "Aircraft" (which is near Laverton if you needed to know) that resulted in us being around 10 minutes late to Spencer, there were no real delays this morning.

One thing I will mention is just how crowded the Collins/Spencer intersection is getting at hometime, since they've closed the subway entrances to Spencer St station. Hopefully the closure is only temporary, otherwise there is always going to be bottlenecks there.

I hate crowds mostly, people never walk at pace I'm accustomed to, or bumble along meandering all over the place so it's difficult to get past them, or my favorite pet peeve, don't keep to the left on sidewalks!

(ok I'm grumpy this morning, no coffee yet.)

A Monday thank you to Connex ....

2005-06-06T08:18:00.000+10:00

Monday morning .... 6.05am service, arriving at Spencer St at past 7.30am.

Yep, another great start to the week. However this time I cannot be whinging about V/Line as they are as much a victim as me in this instance.The reason for the delay today was due to an industrial dispute between Connex & it's staff, which resulted in rolling stoppages for 30 minutes on each line.

Unfortunately it happened to hit the line Geelong trains come into the city on, so we arrived at Werribee and didn't move for about 30 mins.

At least our conductor told us fairly promptly, although when we hadn't moved off straight away, I had an inkling what the issue was, having caught the news at home.

Good ol' Connex. Obviously their dispute management skills need a bit of polishing up. Whether it was a delibrate act or pure accident that two opposing parties involved in a workplace harrassment case get rostered on together again who can tell. However why should we be the victims in all this?

Society is to blame!

Another good excuse for a dedicated express track for country trains straight into Spencer (and something which will never happen due tothe cost & practicality of it.)

I wonder how Connex will react if I send them an invoice payable to the company I work for the time I am late this morning?

Now there's an idea :)

Update: 4.55pm was about 5 minutes late, we seemed to really slow down just before Nth Geelong (which is where I suspect alot of the track work will take place in the next few weeks), and annoyingly a complete stop just outside Geelong Station for a minute or two, nothing more frustrating when you are *almost* home! :)

The week in review

2005-06-03T19:22:00.000+10:00

Well, I had my 5 seconds of fame (or is that infamy?) courtesy of an article in the Age, which mostly talked about connexwhinger, however my blog was linked at the end. Copped a bit of flak from some guy who was also linked in the article, obviously he doesn't like people like connexwhinger expressing their opinion.

Whilst he raised some salient & interesting points (re: Kennett-era), agentfareevader I have to say to you that entitled to your own opinion as you are, remember not all opinions are worth listening to & frankly, unless you've travelled on the Geelong>Melbourne line as a commuter for the past few years, you are sadly mistaken if you think you are remotely qualify as having an opinion on the quality or reliability of the service. And as for saying "my inside contacts say it is getting better" ... pull the other one mate, it plays jingle bells.

'Nuff said.

Apart from a rather amusing "back up the train" incident on the 6.05am service on Monday morning (when we had obviously been routed to the wrong platform at spencer st) and the obligatory 10-15 minute lateness on two days this week, the 6.05am service was surprisingly nearly on time. 4.55pm ran OK & the Tuesday when I caught the 6.28pm, again on time around 'bouts.

It was with resignation that I read the notice I found on my seat on Thursday morning, yet more line closures for several weeks & back to buses from Geelong to Melbourne ... I mean, come on! Seriously, how many times do you have to close the track? This is the third time & in total probably over 3 months worth of closures in the past 18 months. Why can't all the work be scheduled to be done all at once?

Regardless, at least it will only impact me for a few days from the 11th of June, as hopefully by the 20th I'll be staying in Pt Melbourne & experiencing something new, regular travelling by Yarra Trams to the CBD for around 6 weeks. Hmmm so the blog will have to temporarily be called "yarratramwhinger" ??? ;-)

And a sickness descended upon him ...

2005-05-27T18:49:00.000+10:00

Well, V/Line has been safe from my whinges this week only because I've spent the week at home trying to recover from a particularly nasty cold and cough that laid me out in bed for 3 days.

The irony is that the previous week I had gotten my flu shot!

At least I didn't inflict my sickness upon fellow travellers or workmates, like alot of people seem to do.

So that's my whinge for this week ... if you are really sick ... stay home & don't spread the germs!

Freezing Friday

2005-05-20T07:52:00.000+10:00

So it's another glorious Autumn day, clear skies & a magnificent sunrise over Melbourne. Unfortunately in the darkest hours, when I struggle to rise from bed, its probably only nudging a few positive degrees above freezing, thus I didn't manage the 5.28am & instead settled for the 6.05am service this morning.

Still no sign of the sprinter, the days of warmth are fading fast to be replaced with being freezing before & whilst on the train now. Although there was a brief glimmer of hope as I sat in the first class carriage, I could almost detect the barest hint of a warm breeze. At first I thought I was merely dreaming, but lo and behold, I do believe the heater was actually working!

Alas, it was not to be, a couple of minutes later it conked out, and the rest of the journey was spent sitting in the stunning frigidity of the morning air.

A few minutes late, and it really does confirm the theory that it must depend on the driver as to whether we arrive on time (7.05am) or around 7.15-7.25am, plus or minus.

A quick detour to go straight to my "happy place", the regular cafe I get my morning coffee at & was in the office by 7.30am.

'Da Writer tells me I should be out photographing in this morning light, and "he who jumps off morning trains" tut tuts me for missing the early train.

At least it is Friday, although its a lottery as to which train I should try for hometime!

Update: Caught the 4.55pm home & it was no probs (the 50/50 rule applies!)

Only other notable thing is after several months break, I finally had a Sara Lee Hi-Pie Apple Crumble Pie with custard & icecream for dessert tonight ... there had been a search for the ol' Hi-Pie as it seemed to have disappeared from supermarket shelves (there were several addicts quite distressed over this fact), however the mystery is solved as they have renamed it "Deep-Dish Apple Crumble Pie" ... mmmm I like pie.

And if you don't understand the pie obsession, you must visit this website:
I LIKE PIE!

50/50 Chances

2005-05-19T19:17:00.000+10:00

Thursday rolls around with the anticipation of the weekend on its crest & I managed to catch the 5.28am service to Melbourne (the very first train service of the morning).

All is ok until we have almost reached Spencer Street station. A few hundred metres short of the platforms we stop. Around three or four minutes pass & I see a strange flash whisk by ... yep another sighting of the elusive V'Locity Train, off on a trip with no-one on board, normally seen parked by the useless Sprinter trains at the Spencer St yard. I have a theory now, I reckon that they only have one train which they run around & make it look like we are going to get new ones soon .... well paint me green & call me a martian if they are in service on the Geelong line before the end of the year (you read it here first!).

Anyway, only 5 minutes late on the morning train when the driver finally decided which of the 14 free platforms he was going to park at.

In the afternoon, I try my luck at the 16.40 Service, quite crowded but get a seat next to a friend & work colleague who is often a regular 5.28am commuter as well (he of the nimble jump off train whilst moving trick).

Bad luck got me, we were 15 minutes late leaving due to an "electrical fault", but as it is an "express" service, we made up a few minutes and only arrived at Geelong Station around 10 minutes later than normal.

Par for the course really ... at least its Friday tomorrow, it can't get worse can it? With odds like these V/Line should start its own casino, the house will always win & us punters will lose all the more often.

Wednesday of Woe

2005-05-18T20:41:00.000+10:00

Ok, so a quick recap on how the travelling is going this week:

6.05am Monday - Which is no longer a sprinter train anymore, so the trade off is a first class seat for me, but no heating & pot luck whether we actually arrive on time. I manage to walk in the door of the office at 7.16am, so it was an ok run.
4.55pm home, as usual no huge problems, however we did stop for a while between Nth Geelong & Geelong station for no apparent reason for a minute or so.

6.05am Tuesday - must have been a different driver, because we ended up 15 or so minutes late, not really sure where we managed to lose time.

4.55pm home, again no problems, although running slower than normal between Corio & Nth Geelong for some reason.

Then we get to Wednesday, I'm really pushing my luck this week, getting these later trains, but in the interests of good "blogging" I have to get a representative sample of the morning services! Well that's my excuse for a bit of an extra sleep in and I'm sticking to it.

So this morning I caught the 6.20am, managing to catch up with a friend and work collegue who is my travelling companion on the 4.55pm, he shall be named "Da Writer" to protect his identity & reputation.

Depending on what music I'm listening to on my u-beaut iRiver mp3 and how the train is going, I can usually be sure of where we are when I open the peepers for a quick peek. This morning, rather than somewhere between Footscray & Nth Melbourne, I instead saw the refineries of Altona ... hmmmm not looking good.

Gradually our pace slowed, not quite to a crawl, but not far off. Eventually we reach Newport, stop & promisingly depart once more. Then the dreaded slow down & stop. Couldn't quite decide where we were, and to his credit the conductor did announce quite quickly we were delayed because of a broken down train further ahead.

A twenty-five minute wait then ensued before we again slowly made our way again. Finally arriving and getting to work just after 8.05am or so, only about 30 minutes late or so.

4.55pm home, again no real hassles except a notable slow down after Corio. Definitely something go on around there for speed restrictions, just really annoying when you are getting so close to home!

Will be trying the 5.28am tomorrow morning, as haven't travelled on that for a few days now, plus (fingers crossed) want to try for the 4.07pm tomorrow ....

And today was a caffeine free day, very silly of me!

2005-05-15T11:45:00.000+10:00

Friday the 13th Strikes Back!

Yes well, to those who have been checking for the regular whinges (mostly thanks to a link from connexwhinger) about V/line, it has been (mostly) smooth sailing aside from the usual lateness or delays when I've caught the 16.40 Service from Melb to Geelong. My regular ride of the 16.55 is quite punctual and lacking the usual annoyances. I believe this is also due to me wearing the extra expense of a first class ticket.

First class, hmmm it really should be named "normal class", because in essence the only advantage is that the seating arrangements allow for only one person to sit next to you, and they would have to be an elephant size to squash you, as the seats about twice the size as in "cattle" class. Oh and you can recline the seats (particularly good for scaring the breakfast out of the person behind you if they have been playing with the tray on the back of your seat & annoying you ... ).

However, I am digressing from the main point of this entry, which is to relate the homeward journey I experienced on Friday the 13th.

Having had an 'interesting' week at work, and with enough time up my sleeve, I decided to catch the 16.07 service from Melbourne to Geelong.

It wasn't really a promising start when at 4pm, when we boarded the train, the conductor came around and told us we had to get off again. Apparently the driver was most upset that we boarded before he had docked the train properly. Never mind it was late in doing so in the first place!

So everyone disembarked and then five minutes later were allowed to re-embark. This placed us seemingly at the normal departure time. I had mentally noted this fact and made a wager with myself that luck was not on my side tonight and we would most likely be slightly delayed.

At almost 16.25 we finally had an announcement from the conductor that we were delayed and the brakes were being checked and we would get under way shortly.

At around 16.30 we finally did.

Just as we entered Werribee, the conductor again announced we were running twenty minutes behind and due to the length of the train, the driver would not be able to make up any time.

At this moment I felt like jumping out of my seat and singing "R.F.T.L" to the tune of the Village People's song "Y.M.CA."

Think about it "Regional Fast Train Link" .... I'm sure you can make up the words to the song as well as me (and appropriate actions).

So resigned to the fact we were going to be late, I thought that 17.30-35 was not so bad, after all, it was the normal arrival time of the 16.40, which would be stuck behind us anyway!

Finally we arrived at North Geelong. And never left.

Five minutes passed, with no announcement.

Ten minutes.

Given that I lived within thirteen minutes walk of Nth Geelong, the only reason I was still on the train was because my car was at Geelong Station, having driven there to meet up with a workmate who was driving up that morning. If only I had gotten him to pick me up at home!

Fifteen minutes and still no announcement. I decide to walk. Meeting up with an ex-workmate in the same predicatment, he walked home with me, and then onto Geelong.

What a total sham. Fair enough if the train had broken down, but at least let passengers know! From what I could see the conductor was going from carriage to carriage telling people he had no idea if or when the train would go again. I felt sorry for the other two trains that were banked up behind us (the 16.40 and I think the 16.55 was further back).

Well done V/Line, you managed to prove yet again that your fleet of locomotives are poorly maintained & your contingency planning sucks like a dog-slobbered tennis ball.

A special mention for Peter Batchelor here, how about you up the purchase of 38 V'locity trains to about 50, so we have some spare ones because like the "Sprinter" trains, I am sure the new trains will spend most of their time being "maintained" instead of being in service.

2005-04-18T21:42:00.000+10:00

After an uneventful morning journey on the 5.28am to Melbourne, I made the mistake of rushing to catch the 16.40 service back to Geelong in the afternoon.

It was the same old story, no locomotive attached to the carriages, which definitely precludes one from expecting a departure at approximately the scheduled time.

We ended up being about 15 minutes late or so. Which is not an unusual occurance for V/Line services.

Of course the propoganda that V/Line and our State Government churn out is that everything will be better once the VFT is implemented.

The question is when will our Geelong line be graced with the mystical beast known as the Very Fast Train? The amazing $76 million investment of our taxes into a modern 21st century transportation system is as yet nowhere to be seen after almost two and half years of disruption and about 10 weeks worth of line closures.

My sources tell me that Geelong commuters should not hold their collective breaths. Apparently there are still further upgrades to the track near Corio that are not even scheduled yet and the emergency braking system for the trains that has to be linked into the signal system is still not installed.

Don't quote on me this, but I have heard that the V'Locity trains will not be seen on the Geelong line for at least another year.

Although, I'm not sure why I'm too disappointed. After all, $76 million is only going to save 5 minutes at most.

Another Week about to begin

2005-04-17T20:53:00.000+10:00

Well, it is a Sunday night & with trepidation I announce I intend to try and catch the 16.40 service regularly this week. I wonder what the chances are of this service either-;

(a) Leaving on time every day that I catch it and
(b) Arriving on time every day?

I'll keep this site updated, and possibly so will another individual!

vlinewhinger