Froosh. Stuff.

Along with incosiderate pedestrians, what gets me fuming are the twits who ride on trains and trams.  The have a sinister modus opperandi, one that makes me look like the twit when I protest their actions.

So, what they do is fiendishly simple: they get on a train/tram/bus a stop or two before it becomes crammed full and sit down.  “Easy!”, you say, “Settle down.  What could be wrong with that?”  Exactly!

It’s when these passengers need to exit the train that I get really annoyed…  For some absurd reason, they have chosen to sit down, remain seated as the train filled, loaf on their posterior as the train pulls up to their stop, and then act surprised and outraged that they can’t get to the door and off the train due to the congestion in the aisles and doorways.  Of course, “their stop” is normally only 2-5 stops after the train has filled to over-flowing, and this happens day after day.

Apparently, stating this to the passengers as they’re elbowing their way out of the train makes me “rude”.  As in “How rude!”

Just think about how long you’ll be on the train/bus/tram before you sit down and there’ll be no need for me to be rude to you!

My regular commute requires catching bus (571), having that meet a train (Epping station), in to the CBD, and back in the evening.

Now, the bus service is titled “TrainLink”. Train. Link. Far too many times (3 times this week) the bus has arrived too late to meet the train. Similarly in the evening, if the train is running late the bus does not wait for 5 mins. I (and others) then have to wait 30 (!!!!) mins instead for the next bus.

Train. Link. Not working.

And finally: I get substantially better service from the 571 route on weekends (and even Christmas day!) than I do during the week. It runs down Centenary drive every 20 mins on Christmas Day, why can’t it do that during the week??

I will not be recommending the SMS alerts service to anyone, and will likely unsubcribe from it due to it’s extremely poor performance.

I get nuisance notices early in the morning about how a service was cancelled and then not cancelled. I get notices about how the 6:25am from Epping will not run, but don’t receive them until 7:30am (for example).

And finally today, when there is a major disruption to all services, I get … bugger all. Nothing, not a single message. The Connex website does not even have a notice regarding the disruption. Thankfully the Metlink site had some useful information.

How on earth can we expect people to use public transport more often when we get such apalling service?