Re: Melbourne's poor Met service

[Mick Stock <mzs@eastwood.apana.org.au>]

Roderick Smith wrote:
> 
> On Sat.27.2, the Met was unable to transport people from Bayswater at 5.35
> to Spencer St in time to catch the 7.05 Steamrail Sea Lake tour.  Because
> of track occupation at Ringwood, buses to Mitcham left ahead of advertised
> departure times.  The bus replacing the 5.47 had left by 5.35.  Because of
> infrequent service, the next bus was 40 min later; it failed to connect.
> 

I was caught up in the mess as well on Sat morning, but going the
opposite direction. When I transferred onto a bus a Mitcham, the driver
didn't know where he was supposed to go, or even the route to take!
There was a heated "discussion" with station staff, and eventually the
bus departed for Belgrave.  As for the route he took (at least as far as
Ringwood anyway), the trip from Mitcham to Ringwood was all over the
place, and included [totally unnecessary] round trips of the Mitcham Stn
& Eastland car parks before arriving at Ringwood station nearly 30 mins
late!
Luckily I got off at Heathmont, pity the others stuck on the magical
mystery tour to Belgrave....

Fortunately by the afternoon and on Sunday, someone got their act
together and the buses ran much more smoothly, took the most direct
route possible, and took a hell of a lot less time.
 
> Melbourne's Met certainly is no longer a system, but it isn't a service
> either.

Has anyone else noticed during the last week just how bad it is getting?
For example, a large number of trains on Monday morning
(Lilydale/Belgrave/Glen Waverly lines) arrived at Flinders St between 10
& 20 mins LATE, and many heading back out towards the
Lilydale/Belgrave/Glen Waverly lines were 10-15 mins late. AT NO TIME
was there any announcement of the reasons for the delays.

There was also a case of 'musical platforms' at FS, when the 4D arrived
on plat. 4 at about 8:45 am instead of plat. 3 (about 7 mins late), and
was announced as the 8:34 to Blackburn. Just as it was about to pull
out, they then announced that it was now  going to Lilydale (where it
was supposed to go in the first place).  Needless to say, there was a
mad rush from plat 3 to plat 4, and the 4D FINALLY got away about 10
mins late.  It was still about 8 mins late when it left East Ringwood (I
only caught my "connecting" bus with 10 seconds to spare!).

> Roderick Smith
> Rail News Victoria Editor