Melbourne, gas problem

["Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au>]

On Sat.10.4 I arrived at Flinders St at about 9.35 on a train from Mitcham,
attempting to reach Spencer St for a 10.00 train.
At Flinders St the platform announcement was that the train would return
direct to Richmond.
The adjacent Hurstbridge train was altered to run direct to Jolimont.
There was a gas leak; no trains would run via the loop to anywhere. 
Passengers for loop stations were advised to catch city circle trams
(although Swanston St trams would have been faster for travellers to
Central).
With difficulty I found the platform for northern-group trains (it is
signed for northern group Mon.-Fri.),
one train left with the tv monitor blank and with no announcement.
The next train was announced, but had no monitor message at Flinders St or
at Spencer St.

While we can't blame the Met for gas leaks; the lack of platform
information made a bad situation worse.

An even more irritated passenger in our carriage complained that, on the
last Ringwood work day, his bus from the Lilydale line arrived at Mitcham
with the supposedly connecting train having left already.

This came on top of a frustrating return home from a city theatre on
Wednesday night.  Missing a train by 2 min, I had to wait for 28 min for
the next: a greater time than the actual journey.

The Met had the gall to put advertisements in Friday's paper on the lines
of: all passengers are criminals: buy your tickets at milkbars and
'revalidate' an already-valid ticket OR ELSE.

Even when trains run as advertised, Melbourne's trains are slow, infrequent
and make poor connections: problems which will not be solved by splitting
the system into pieces.

-- 
Regards
Roderick Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor