Guess who left the car window ajar overnight? Yup. Fortunately it didn’t rain much this morning.
On the bright side, I managed to do a bit of time-travelling on the way home today. Something like this:
16:50. Get to Flinders Street, just miss 16:49 Mordialloc train leaving.
16:52. Deftly leap aboard an Alamein train direct to Richmond, to try and beat the Mordialloc train around the loop.
16:55. Change at Richmond. Battle past hordes changing onto platform. Must be some disruption in the loop.
16:57. Get onto Dandenong train express South Yarra to Caulfield. Read book (yes, I’m still going on The Crow Road)
17:03. About the same time as I see us overtaking a Frankston train at Armadale, I get an SMS from Connex to tell me that the 16:59 train I would have caught had I not indulged in all this rigmarole, has been cancelled.
17:05. Roll into Caulfield. Change platforms. One bloke looks very pleased with himself to be reaching the other platform in time.
17:07. Board the train we overtook at Armadale.
17:10. Get to Glenhuntly (which is not my usual stop, but was where I was going on this occasion).
So it was worth all that messing about, not just sitting down at Flinders Street to wait (and wait, and wait). The train after the cancelled one would have got me there about 17:40, so I saved about half an hour. Woo hoo!
5 replies on “Transport karma”
Euch, Connex – thought I’d never have to hear that company’s name again. Do they screw up Melbourne trains as badly as they screw up South of England trains? In the end they lost their licence here.
I am not a regular train traveller and so unused to the intracies of Melbourne trains but I can remember doing the same, that is missing a train that was going around the loop but catching a train direct to Richmond and hopefully catch my correct train there. Funny thing is, I can’t remember if I did catch it. Bit of a non statement really. I probably did as I do recall feeling quite clever.
Andy, I can safely say that yes, Connex has completely FUBARed the public transport system here. Never in my life have I experienced the amount of effups that they have managed in their couple of months of being in control – it’s now a pleasant surprise when the trains are running *on time*. Unfortunately I can’t try to beat trains as the three lines I would use all use the same tunnel to get to North Melbourne.
This is typical service on the Frankston stopping all stations line. It is quite rare to see any evening peak hour train on this line run on time or even run. This line has the distinction of having the worst service of any line on the system, you’d be lucky to get a 15 minute service on it.
Ren: Werribee line, right? Theoretically you could overtake a train between the loop and Footscray, but it’s not very likely. Ah well. No train-racing for you!
Craig, I’ve used the Frankston line for more than 10 years – tell me something I don’t know! :-) Actually reading it again, you’re exaggerating a fair bit. It ain’t perfect, but it’s better than some of the other lines.