Category Archives: Transport

V/Line Band Aids

Last Tuesday evening, V/Line’s newest, shiniest V/Locity DMU was stopped for almost 30 minutes at Spotswood station, operating service number 8229, otherwise known as the 16:40 Southern Cross to Marshall. Passengers were told that the new unit – (running at the front of the three unit consist) – had become “uncoupled” from the two rearward […]

The Little Engine That Could Not

Yesterday’s massive rail debacle in Melbourne affected almost every running train service in the entire state of Victoria. Hundreds of thousands of commuters were delayed, some for extended periods of time. I have no doubt that most people in the calm light of day appreciate that in any system, things do go wrong from time […]

The Reason Your V/Line Train Runs Late

V/Line will always blame something other than themselves for their trains constantly running late. Well, I think I have found the main reason – they think they are sending trains to one location, when they are actually meant to be going to another location. This ”updated track works notification” was just released, indicating track works […]

Politicians: Think Before You Speak

As a long suffering Geelong V/Line commuter, the progression of the Regional Rail Link project is very welcome. It will improve reliability and the predictability of the timetable, and therefore travel times into and out of Melbourne. Unfortunately, as is often the case with major infrastructure projects, residential properties need to make way for some […]

Bad Customer Image from Metro

As part of my program to get my newly diagnosed diabetes under control, I regularly walk from where I currently work under sub-contract in St Kilda Road to Flinders Street Station, to catch a suburban train around to Southern Cross, before boarding my V/Line train home for the evening. Last night – (27 May 2010) […]

V/Line Lies: The Facts are in the Figures

Time and time again we hear V/Line apologising for terrible monthly performance reports, particularly on the Geelong line. V/Line Runs Late … Again The above news report demonstrates that only 75.3% of all services on the Geelong line for the calendar month of March ran “on-time”. V/Line defines a train as “late” if it arrives […]

Transport Customer Service A Disgrace

Well, seems our old friends at V/Line are at it again, with a display of “customer service” that one must stand back to behold! This evening’s 17:29 Southern Cross to Marshall was cancelled. So what you ask? Well, it’s more the circumstances that caused it’s cancellation, and the subsequent “customer service” experience that’s really gotten […]

No Problem with New Train Line

Now, I’m not normally one to defend Victoria’s rail network – a network that is bursting at the seams, and utterly frustrating for us regular commuters – but the following article shows that the Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) has absolutely zero foresight when it comes to the Regional Rail Link (RRL) as part of […]

V/Line: Time to Develop a Clue!

Now, I do not – and would not – pretend to understand the finer intricacies of the management of a fleet of trains, but I would like to think that some common sense would come into it – somewhere. Hopefully. Alas, events at Southern Cross Station on Friday evening leave me wondering if “common sense” […]