Today, 5/2/98, I arrived at my station (between Seven Hills and Westmead -
I won't say which, to protect the station staff concerned!) that was due to
depart from Westmead at 4.05 to the city - we were advised at 4.00pm that
the train had been cancelled, and we were advised to catch the next
Liverpool train to Westmead and change.
I proceeded to the ticket office and asked them if Operations Control were
going to transpose one of the Penrith trains that were to run express to
stop between Seven Hills and Westmead - 3 extra stops = 3 extra minutes.
The station assistant informed me that the train had in fact NOT been
cancelled, but was actually running late, and had been transposed to run
express to Westmead.
The altered service was tabled to arrive at Town Hall at 4.39pm - if I had
followed the advice given and travelled to Westmead, I would have arrived
at Town Hall at 5.09pm. (I actually changed at Parramatta onto a Penrith
train which skipped Westmead, and arrived there at 5.04 - a difference of 5
mins which was vital in the end!)
This episode demonstrates a number of things about CityRail:
It is more interested in running a railway than in carrying passengers -
the reason I was given was so that the train could arrive in the city on
time. I realise that it is important for trains to arrive in the city close
to time, as there are so many trains operating that delays can snowball,
but I know for a fact that there IS recovery time built in to timetables,
and this should have been used. There were approx. 25 people at the staion
I was waiting at, and there were probably similiar numbers at the other two
stations - thats approx 75 people who were inconvenienced by this
operational mentality that pervades CityRail.
CityRail staff are not aware of the interchanges between Western and
Cumberland line services - as mentioned above, if I had followed the
station staff's advice, I would have arrived later than I did - it was only
because I had a reasonable knowledge of the system that I changed at
Parramatta.
CityRail operates on the "mushroom principle" when dealing with passengers
- keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit - we were told the train was
cancelled - it was NOT cancelled, but the stopping pattern had been altered
- the station staff told me they had been instructed not to inform
passengers of this, but to give them the cock-and-bull story - this was to
create less complaints - and they are right. There would have been a riot
if the true story had got out today. People are fair-minded - they accept
that mechanical problems DO occur, and that things DO break down. They are
totally unwilling to accept that their jopurney has been delayed by 30
minutes because some buruaecrat at Operations Control doesn't want 5
minutes added to his delay figures for the day.
I fully accept that the delay caused by this train MAY have snowballed, but
it was preventable by means OTHER than that adopted on this occasion.
-- RegardsDavid Proctor daproc@bigfoot.com
A copy of this posting will be forward to the Business manager and the Community Relations Officer at the CityRail Business Office - west. I will also post a copy of the replies (if any) that I receive.