Re: [v] Flinders St station stuff-ups - AGAIN

["James C" <jamesccj@optusnet.com.au>]

Hillside is not the one to blame , the reason of change platform usually
caused by Federation square construction distruptions, delay from Bayside
trains or V/line caused changes.

Cheers
James



Mick Stock <mzs@nospam.bigpond.com> wrote in message
393650F7.C0711C87@nospam.bigpond.com">news:393650F7.C0711C87@nospam.bigpond.com...
> This is getting way beyond a joke.....
> I challenge ANYONE who works at Hillside to come up with the REAL
> explanation for the following:
>
> Who is responsible for what trains are switched to what platforms at
> FSS?
>
> This afternoon, I had to catch a train much earlier (about 3 hours) than
> normal - at about 3pm, they couldn't make up their minds what trains
> were leaving what platforms (plat. 2, 3, & 4).  Some trains which
> normally leave from plat. 4 were switched to 3, trains which should have
> been using plat 2 or 3 were switched to 4, the display screens were
> TOTALLY out of sync with actual train movements, and even station staff
> didn't have a clue what was going on!
>
> For example, at about 14:55, the 15:05 (15:04??) Glen Waverley was
> sitting at plat. 2, was announced as such, but the screens indicated
> "not taking passengers", and the doors were closed, so no-one could get
> on anyway. The 15:01 Alamain train was sitting at plat. 3. At 14:58, the
> 14:59 Lilydale was announced as "departing plat. 4", and passengers were
> only given a one minute warning of this fact.  Considering the mess that
> plat 2/3 is in at the moment, moving everyone from 2/3 across to 4 is a
> major pain the the a..., so why did they do it?
>
> And why the hell can't they stop changing what platform a train is going
> to leave from?  As a typical example (and one which happens almost every
> day on some services):
>
> One minute, the screens show that a train going to Lilydale will leave
> from plat 2, then a few mins later plat 3, then back to 2. In the
> meantime, the train arriving on plat 3 ends up being the Lilydale... Or
> worse still, the train arriving on plat 4 will be the one!  In the
> meantime, the screens on plat 2/3 will often be turned off!  With the
> so-called construction works, which restrict access for a large part of
> platforms 2/3, further delays are triggered while passengers attempt to
> move from one side to the other with the limited access caused by the
> construction works.
>
> It is also quite common for a train to be delayed, because another train
> which is due to leave AFTER the scheduled earlier train was given access
> to the platforms first (which is also what happen this afternoon)!
>
> Most days, I catch either the 18:04 (which may as well be rescheduled to
> 18:11, as it rarely leaves before then!), the 18:14 Belgrave (usually
> leave 18:16), or the 18:22 Lilydale from FSS.  The trains are almost
> always late, arrive at the other end even later. Even at this time of
> the evening there is almost always platform swapping as in todays
> example above (mainly between 2 & 3, but occassionally switched to plat
> 4 or even plat 1).  And of course, I usually end up missing bus
> connections due to the late running, resulting in 30-40 min wait for the
> next bus....
>
> This is sloppy running, and can not be justified.  At no time was there
> any indication of signal problems, as trains were using all platforms
> concerned (and switching tracks quite normally).
>
> And when are they going to FIX THOSE USELESS BLOODY
> SCREENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> Can ANYONE explain how many years ago, when everything was done manually
> (computers weren't used for that sort of thing in the 50's/60's/early
> 70's(?)), there were less problems than now.  With modern technology,
> these problems shouldn't be happening, except for when there are genuine
> equipment failures, and yet in real life, things are going downhill very
> fast.
>
> Mick.