Transport timetables are out the window

I think they are making it up as they go along, I reported earlier that it is often seen that a busy and delayed bus will be caught up by the next one, particularly in peak times, and I can sort of understand how it can happen, however the other night, when I got to my stop after work there was already a bus there waiting to go. A bit unusual but this sometimes happens, they sometimes start their run from my stop, other ones come by from down the hill and fly by, but never ever running on time or to any schedule that I can find.

At this point in Collins Street there is a list of times they should be leaving my stop, a timetable printed on the post at the stop. The 4:13pm never happens (after 4 months I am yet to see this bus), the 4:28pm often there, often late and then the 4:35pm when you get desperate it appears just in time to rescue me from total despair. But this night the bus was there, and I asked the driver when he was scheduled to leave, I asked again to understand his grunt a little better and got a ’27′ out of him, weird, it’s ten minutes to the 28 past but close enough. I will stand next to the bus and wait because sometimes the earlier ones comes past, and I would prefer to be ready for that and leave earlier if I can. 5 minutes later the guy closes the doors and starts to take of, “wait on” and he stops and lets me on looking at me surprised. so the 4:13 never appears, the 4:28 leaves at 4:24 now and god help you if you came in the next few minutes expecting a bus cause I doubt there would be one.

At my stop this morning, I have this view (right) and like so many other stops the timetable is missing. Is this just vandalism? Do people actively rip them from the post for fun or is there something more behind it? Perhaps, it may seem that if there is no timetable displayed then the people waiting wont get as upset if the bus is late, or feels like leaving early, or in fact, never shows up, what evidence would the travelling public have without their timetables on display. Well one is that I have a phone with web browsing and I can look these things up, it’s pretty cool to view this while waiting patiently at the stop. But this goes further, and then becomes a conspiracy in that if you take these minor infractions together and include the possibility of another significant and regular event the scale of things become enormous…

Train cancellations are done on purpose!

I have had it suggested to me that some services may be delayed or cancelled because it will cost them less, in that Connex delivers a rail passenger service to the Victorian Government and has to at least provide some 92% of their planned services reliably before they get penalties applied.

This means that they can fail 8% of the time without repercussions and the constant cancellations are a form of proof that this is being done on purpose to save 8% of their operating costs. Some are legitimate problems, accidents, failures and theft can cause stoppages, but in reality how many can be better managed and resolved or do they just prefer to fall back to their minimum contracted requirements?

Now they are looking to improve services, more trains, increased runs and more carriages, will this actually help?

No. Under the current arrangement I expect that the reality is they don’t have to deliver any improvement, there is no incentive to do so. Connex have won the contract to perform at a specific level, and that’s not increasing, it actually could mean that they can cancel more services, provide no more service, maintain the status quo and still get paid the full contractible amount.

So the way it is going I wouldn’t be surprised to see them pick up all their copper when the contract expires and run off to China and sell it for scrap, or public transport system is going to be demolished beneath us as we use it and find ourselves paying for high fuel prices, or perhaps walking to work in the not to distant future.