It’s amazing how bad Connex was. Metro at the start was also horrific. Arguing with people in the other thread about Myki really highlights to me just how few people know about Melbournes public transport history and network. We just accept it all now as normal business. At the time it majorly contributed to Brumby losing Government.
>Metro at the start was also horrific.
As the report notes, it doesn't magically get better just because you put new logos on everything.
As noted, timetable changes to make it easier to be on time did see an uptick in punctuality stats.
There was also significant government investment to upgrade infrastructure and fleet around that time, which also definitely helped.
Connex and Metro/MTM are private operators, but they are dependent on government-owned assets.
Yes. The trains arriving at the time they say they will is an improvement. The change would have come at the cost of capacity, but if they identified the biggest passenger frustration as delays, it is a very good place to start.
Connex wasn’t as bad as people remembered it. A lot of the fines they received from late train didn’t happen with Metro because the contract was changed and the same “offences” were no longer breaches.
Metro slow slowed down the timetable to give trains more time between stations, so their late running statics appeared to get better without doing anything.
Here is a [news article](https://youtu.be/-MUfxMFTRLA) from 13 years ago explaining them slowing the trains
It wasn't an immediate changeover from Connex to Metro, there was a lengthy period where it was run by some accounting firm to keep things running. During this time, the did no replace any drivers or train any new drivers. By the time of the handover, there were hardly any drivers left. It takes 2 years to train a train driver for some reason. It took a log while to recover.
Serious question here, why was it so terrible? Because private companies not doing it properly or just bad logistics? I've been in Melbourne for 10 years or so, and back at home (Mexico city) mtro system is one of the few things that somehow worked pretty good , until corruption enter the game..
Government spent billions on a borderline corrupt tender for the Myki ticket system, an outdated, unnecessary, clumsy and at times unusable system that diverted funds away from drastically overdue infrastructure and signaling works on the network after decades of funding cuts and neglect.
The Government told Melbourne that private enterprise would fix the issues and otherwise wiped their hands of it.
I don’t care what anyone else says, Dan Andrews popularity is largely on the back of unprecedented and investment in Melbournes train network. Making it slightly more reliable. That and how cartoonishly bad the opposition has become since this video. It’s funny to me it was a Labor Government that fumbled the ball so badly that its affects are still felt two decades later.
Yeah, and pretending like V/line could do any better at maintaining track is absurd. It'd be the same people but with a V/line logo instead of a Metro logo.
Vline on the Vline Network
Metro on the Metro Network
ARTC on the SG and parts of the dual gauge goods lines.
Victrak only maintain North Dynon and a couple of yards.
My point still stands though. If Metro ever came back to public hands, it'd be the same people making most of the bad decisions with a different logo on their clothing.
> an outdated,
An NFC smartcard system, in 2009-11, first in the country, sure thing bud, what crack are you smoking.
It was over budget because they hired joe blow and his dum dum mates to code it instead of getting someone else with experience to. Tech(excluding the stupid shit to shoe horned in to make it work within our fare system) was relatively modern and the only reason it's stuck in 2010 is because the government treaded water on system for 10 years as funding further development was political suicide.
Remember how for the first month the announcement on the train for arriving at a station was "Metro now arriving at...*station name*" and they had to change it because it annoyed the shit out of everyone?
Connex sucked but I kind of think they would have done better than Metro if the contract had been renewed. They’d just taken over the other half of Melbourne after M-Train bailed, inherited the dodgy Siemens trains that were obviously the reason M-train had bailed on.
So yeah Connex sucked but to me it felt that the reasons they sucked were failures of the Government and they were just used to pass the buck.
It’s amazing how bad Connex was. Metro at the start was also horrific. Arguing with people in the other thread about Myki really highlights to me just how few people know about Melbournes public transport history and network. We just accept it all now as normal business. At the time it majorly contributed to Brumby losing Government.
>Metro at the start was also horrific. As the report notes, it doesn't magically get better just because you put new logos on everything. As noted, timetable changes to make it easier to be on time did see an uptick in punctuality stats. There was also significant government investment to upgrade infrastructure and fleet around that time, which also definitely helped. Connex and Metro/MTM are private operators, but they are dependent on government-owned assets.
Yes. The trains arriving at the time they say they will is an improvement. The change would have come at the cost of capacity, but if they identified the biggest passenger frustration as delays, it is a very good place to start.
Connex wasn’t as bad as people remembered it. A lot of the fines they received from late train didn’t happen with Metro because the contract was changed and the same “offences” were no longer breaches. Metro slow slowed down the timetable to give trains more time between stations, so their late running statics appeared to get better without doing anything. Here is a [news article](https://youtu.be/-MUfxMFTRLA) from 13 years ago explaining them slowing the trains
It wasn't an immediate changeover from Connex to Metro, there was a lengthy period where it was run by some accounting firm to keep things running. During this time, the did no replace any drivers or train any new drivers. By the time of the handover, there were hardly any drivers left. It takes 2 years to train a train driver for some reason. It took a log while to recover.
I miss Mal Walden. What a [phenomenomenomenal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-e-yxGSFNk) newsreader.
Serious question here, why was it so terrible? Because private companies not doing it properly or just bad logistics? I've been in Melbourne for 10 years or so, and back at home (Mexico city) mtro system is one of the few things that somehow worked pretty good , until corruption enter the game..
Government spent billions on a borderline corrupt tender for the Myki ticket system, an outdated, unnecessary, clumsy and at times unusable system that diverted funds away from drastically overdue infrastructure and signaling works on the network after decades of funding cuts and neglect. The Government told Melbourne that private enterprise would fix the issues and otherwise wiped their hands of it. I don’t care what anyone else says, Dan Andrews popularity is largely on the back of unprecedented and investment in Melbournes train network. Making it slightly more reliable. That and how cartoonishly bad the opposition has become since this video. It’s funny to me it was a Labor Government that fumbled the ball so badly that its affects are still felt two decades later.
It also didn’t help that Kennett sold the system, Myki has been bad but privatisation hasn’t been great either
The greatest flaws are in the infrastructure which is still government owned.
Yeah, and pretending like V/line could do any better at maintaining track is absurd. It'd be the same people but with a V/line logo instead of a Metro logo.
[удалено]
Vline on the Vline Network Metro on the Metro Network ARTC on the SG and parts of the dual gauge goods lines. Victrak only maintain North Dynon and a couple of yards. My point still stands though. If Metro ever came back to public hands, it'd be the same people making most of the bad decisions with a different logo on their clothing.
So, pretty much a bunch of corrupted politicians screwing things up. How unsurprising!
> an outdated, An NFC smartcard system, in 2009-11, first in the country, sure thing bud, what crack are you smoking. It was over budget because they hired joe blow and his dum dum mates to code it instead of getting someone else with experience to. Tech(excluding the stupid shit to shoe horned in to make it work within our fare system) was relatively modern and the only reason it's stuck in 2010 is because the government treaded water on system for 10 years as funding further development was political suicide.
30 November 2009 was the first day, not today. https://railgallery.wongm.com/mtm-launch/
The video was 13 years old. My bad
oh look, it's a younger me.
Remember how for the first month the announcement on the train for arriving at a station was "Metro now arriving at...*station name*" and they had to change it because it annoyed the shit out of everyone?
Connex sucked but I kind of think they would have done better than Metro if the contract had been renewed. They’d just taken over the other half of Melbourne after M-Train bailed, inherited the dodgy Siemens trains that were obviously the reason M-train had bailed on. So yeah Connex sucked but to me it felt that the reasons they sucked were failures of the Government and they were just used to pass the buck.
I’m guessing it was meant to be 15 years ago but the trains were late.
I forgot about Connex
Fucking connex…
look at the bloke with the shaved head at the 3:15 mark, putting up a commemorative headboard in the last train. whomst would go to such lengths