MET strikes again - arrgggg

[Michael Stock <mzs@bom.gov.au>]

The MET (Melb) strikes again....

Is it the start of the "silly season" already, or what?

This evening (Mon 16 Nov), I was waiting for my regular train to the
city ( 5:48pm ex Lilydale ).  It arrived on time (give or take a minute
or two), but there was just one little problem - the driver made
ABSOLUTELY NO ATTEMPT to stop at my station (East Ringwood)!  

Since  I had my mobile with me, I ran Ringwood station.  The person who
answered (forgot to get his name) confirmed that the train concerned
arrived and departed from Ringwood normally, and that no-one at Ringwood
was aware of any reason why this train DIDN'T stop at East Ringwood.
Fortunately for the other passengers at E.R., a PA announcement was made
almost immediately after my phone call (by the same guy I spoke to??)
apologising for the missing train and advising us of when the next one
would arrive.

Needless to say, I was more than just a bit pissed off.... thanks to
this
driver, I (and several other "regulars") was unnecessarily half an hour 
late for work!

But the worst is - THIS IS NOT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT - this has happened
at least 4 times this year!  Since there are no services between
Ringwood
and Lilydale which run express (other than stabling operations), where
would
the driver get the idea from to run express from Croydon (or even
Lilydale??)
to Ringwood????

The normal (empty) stabling runs either side of what should have been my
train were running normally, so no problem there.

By a strange co-incidence, today I found in my P.O. box a copy of the
Met's
new service guarantee - effective mid 1999.  Isn't it funny how the gov.
is going to force new operators to maintain certain standards as to
service
reliability, etc,  but the Met currently seems exempt!  I'm still going
to
lodge a formal (written) complaint to the Met re today's episode (and
other
recent events), but I'll bet they won't compensate me for loss of wages,
etc!

Mick

p.s. Was anyone else waiting for the 5:48pm ex Lilydale at Croydon or 
Mooroolbark?  I'd like to know if this train stopped at either of those
stations, or did it just speed though like it did at East Ringwood....