Thursday, March 06, 2008
connex is shit
So it only took me 3/4 of an hour to get to work this morning starting with the 7:57 express train from Broady and utilising the hot new bus from North Melbourne. Great, huh? It is actually a pretty good time. But it would have been 10 mins less if the express train hadn't stopped for 10 mins about 1/2 a k outside North Melbourne station. What on earth is the point of putting on express trains - which ostensibly inconvenience a few at lesser used stations to the advantage of pushing through a larger amount of passsengers - when in fact all the time saved is squandered just before the end of the journey? The train is still packed, people were left standing, obviously irritated. I used the time wisely to call Connex and complain, I expect a response to my complaint in seven working days, by which time I hope I will be a little less irritated, but the fact remains, there is no reason for this happening, only excuses, and even if the excuse is a baby was asleep on the rail line with its head on a pillow on the track and the Connex employees didn't want to wake it up so they had to be extra careful, that can't always be the reason for delays, and in fact, the only real reason that I would find acceptable is if Connex called me back and said the reason for the delay is we are shit, and even then I wouldn't be happy unless I had it in writing.
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Three years ago, two economists at the University of Zurich, Bruno Frey and Alois Stutzer, released a study called “Stress That Doesn’t Pay: The Commuting Paradox.” They found that, if your trip is an hour each way, you’d have to make forty per cent more in salary to be as “satisfied” with life as a noncommuter is … The commuting paradox reflects the notion that many people, who are supposedly rational (according to classical economic theory, at least), commute even though it makes them miserable. They are not, in the final accounting, adequately compensated.
“People with long journeys to and from work are systematically worse off and report significantly lower subjective well-being,” Stutzer told me. According to the economic concept of equilibrium, people will move or change jobs to make up for imbalances in compensation. Commute time should be offset by higher pay or lower living costs, or a better standard of living. It is this last category that people apparently have trouble measuring. They tend to overvalue the material fruits of their commute—money, house, prestige—and to undervalue what they’re giving up: sleep, exercise, fun.
Oh Zurich, is there anything you can't explain?
I wonder if the people who got on at Essendon and wanted to go to North Melbourne think Connex is shit? Or perhaps a bit of a standy-on-a-crowded-train time is what they needed to chill.
And by the way my commute would have been 35 minutes, but, Connex being shit, it was 45, and when (Connex being shit) I have to miss a train because it's too crowded, then that adds 20 minutes. I bet those people on the train with their faces pressed up against the glass or in someone else's arse crack doesn't think Connex is shit! If they did, they would switch to a less shit option.
It’s official you’re number one on the Connex complaint spinner alert.
as long as i'm your number one christie
Mandu commuting stress free AND compensated for it
Oh Mandu, you've done it again.
If there's a real reason for the dealys I could live with it but it's all the small delays that add up that really get me, which seem to be just caused by Connex being slack.
I've watched the driver amble up to a train at Flinders St 2 or 3 minutes after it was supposed to leave and then have a chat to the other driver for a bit too.
My train into Flinders St in the afternoon sits just outside the platform just long enough for me to miss the ONLY express on the Epping line by a few seconds. It's crap.
I did once hear an announcement that the train was late due to the late running of the train, which was probably correct but not very helpful.
Tony, I have to admit I have rarely come across such casual flouting of the timetable requirements but I imagine that since the parent company is so hated the employees are hardly motivated to give it their all. Not that I therefore think they shouldn't try. I wonder who is responsible for (for instance) the indicators within most carriages that tell you, half the time erroneously, what the next station is. It was funny coming into the city on Friday with the indicators simply set to 'Craigieburn'. As usual, the rump of Melbournians who continue to use pt are used to this kind of rubbish and negotiate around it but for any newbie it's so user-unfriendly it's almost cliquey. But that's not about punctuality is it - sorry (deep breath) - got to stay on-topic.
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