It's December the 7th, Do you know where your Bluebirds are?

[Jennifer Richmond <richmond@melbpc.org.au>]

December the 7th, long reported by myself and others on this newsgroup
for being the first day of Bluebird operation on the Warragul line. I
thought I may as well take the opportunity to take a look at these
bluebirds and have a ride.

I bought my ticket at Spencer Street and traveled to Dandenong on a
suburban train( this trip was uneventful, apart from the kids throwing
rocks at the train at Westall). I arrived at Dandenong and waited for
the Bluebird to arrive. To my amazement and annoyance, instead of a
Bluebird, a rather dirty single sprinter (7010) pulled up as the
service. I asked the conductor what had happened and he told me that the
Bluebird had left Traralgon that morning and broken down before Morwell.
It had taken most of the day to fix it and they were running the
sprinter until tomorrow (today). I asked him where the sprinter had come
from and he told me that it was on standby, in case this happened (shows
the confidence that VLP have in their new vehicles!).

Disappointed, I decided to travel on anyway (after all, a train is a
train, no matter how old it is) as I had bought my ticket already. We
ran express to Pakenham (very nice) and then stopped. The Station
attendant came out of the station building and asked the conductor if he
had heard the "Good News" he said no and the station attendant told him
that the bluebird had broken down again on a test run (I heard all of
this as I was sitting right up the front of the passenger compartment).
The conductor told us over the PA that there would be a "slight delay".
This service was due out of Dandenong at 2:40, Pakenham at 2:58 and
Warragul at 3:32. It left Dandenong at 2:40 and was still sitting at
Pakenham at 3:40. There was another sprinter on its tail (the 3:20
Traralgon) and a spark waiting behind that.

At 3:30, when I realized there was no way that even a sprinter could
make up lost time now, I decided to call it a day and return to
Melbourne. Anyone Know if the Bluebird ran today?