Travelling home with Hillside trains <=> V/line

["Reuben Farrelly" <reuben@mira.AA.net>]

Hi,

It's been a pretty disappointing weekend for some aspects of Melborne
suburban train travel to date.  It's as if Hillside have gone out of their
way to make it damn near imposible to catch any form of country train on
time -

* Glen Waverley trains have not run all weekend due to maintenance work at
High St level crossing - meaning that loop travel has been a more tricky
than usual as these services have not been replaced by anything

* Lilydale/Belgrave trains were running direct from Flinders St due to
maintenance work in the loop (usually from Flinders -> loop)

That left only Epping/Hurstbridge trains going from Flinders St to Spencer
St today in the entire system, and even they were each leaving at only 40
minute hour intervals (although there were both Hurstbridge and Epping
trains alternating).  This is preposterous, given that these are Melbournes
two largest terminals, and a good number of people must come from Flinders
St to Spencer St to catch trains home.  There were many trains going the
other way around the loop.

When I asked at Spencer St Info desk (V/Line) about this on Saturday and
told them that I had missed a connect because of this, they told me that
"no-one told us that there were suburban train cancellations".  It had taken
me over 20 minutes to find a train that was going from Flinders St to
Spencer St.  Trams were also out around the area, as there was some pretty
heavy duty excavation work going on outside Flinders St.

To cap it all off today I thought I'd call the feedback line and let them
know how annoying it was - but it kindly informed me to call back during
business hours and not weekends or public holidays.  One wonders if they've
heard of answering machines - or if in fact if the customer service/care
idea went home on the last train on Friday evening.

Is this the sort of timetabling (even if it is temporary) that is supposed
to encourage people to use public transport?

Wouldn't it be appropriate on weekends like this to have some sort of city
loop trains that only loop all day?  If not, why not?

Reuben      (finished winging now!)