Re: Melbourne trains

[Vaughan Williams <ender2000@my-deja.com>]

> 1. who owns the stations

Government.
Theyre leased to the private operators (12 year lease, I think). Each
operator leases the stations on the lines they run. The five CBD
stations plus Richmond are shared, I think Hillside runs Spencer,
Flinders and Richmond, and bayside the underground ones.

> 2. do the private operators have Station Masters/ASM's

Majority of stations are still unstaffed, but yes they do at so-called
Premium stations.

> 3. I know in Sydney if a disturbance exists on a train, the SM/ASM
may delay
> the train and remove the offender...how does this work under the
private
> system...can the Station Master/ASM (presumably there is such) give an
> instruction to the Guard employed by the other system.

Situation only arises at the six stations where both companies have
trains.
I think driver has control of train and can stop train and await police
assistance. Anyone who knows more about this please correct me.

> 4. Who controls the suburban train control system?

Don't know.

> 5. Can the train controller transpose a service to vary the stopping
pattern
> to allow that service to makeup time? If not, who has the authority
to do
> that, and is it often done?

Its not supposed to be done, I've never experienced it on a Melbourne
train and have heard of it only very recently on the Ringwood line.
Generally if a trains running late it can try to make up the time by
going faster between stations (Melbourne trains don't run as fast as
theyre capable of safely doing - many timetables haven't been adjusted
since the days of the red rattler).

Not sure who has the authority to do it.

> 6. Melbourne's Revenue Protection Officers - who owns them? Do they
cover
> the entire metropolitan area, of do they now just belong to a
particular
> operator?

Individual companies now employ these odious public relations
nightmares. Theyre called "Customer Service Employees" even though the
only "service" they provide is checking tickets and (occasionally)
threatening, harassing and even assaulting passengers (sometimes for
good reason, sometimes not). They generally can't tell you where to
change trams, for example.

> 7. Penalty Notices issued by the Revenue Protection Officers - to
which
> office are they paid (police/the rail operator/or some overall
governing
> authority)?

Government.
Fines go straight to treasury.

> 8. Is the training for Melbourne's train drivers (both operators)
done by a
> central training unit and does the same apply for train controllers
and
> signal operators?

Don't know.

Vaughan


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