Thanks Connex

On Nov 20, 3:49 pm, EuanB <EuanB.30b...@no-

mx.forums.cyclingforums.com said:

AndrewJ said:

I'll think you'll find that connex advise you to travel at the <front>
of
the train if you are doing anything unusual. For example, you have a
pusher with a toddler, or a large object to move. This is so you are
close to the driver and he/she can see what's happening.

Connex prefers that cyclists get on at the back of the train because
the front of the train's better for facilitating wheelchair access.

When someone who's in a wheelchair needs to board a train the driver
has to hop out to set up the ramp. Having the front carraige filled
with fit and able bodied cyclists makes that a bit difficult.

--
EuanB

Yes, of course. My mistake. Makes it hard if you've got a party with
children/bicycles. Maybe the second from front would have been
better.

No guards on Melbourne trains? This means that Sydney is more cyclist-friendly than Melbourne for once! (about the only thing that is better).

On Nov 21, 11:18 am, artemidorus <artemidorus.30d...@no-

mx.forums.cyclingforums.com said:

No guards on Melbourne trains? This means that Sydney is more
cyclist-friendly than Melbourne for once! (about the only thing that is
better).

--
artemidorus

No, guards went quite a while ago.

vaudegiant said:

Had an interesting bike (train) trip on Melbourne Cup week-end. My

<snip horror story>

As others have said the drivers mirrors are probably useless BUT there
are 4 cameras and screens that allow the driver to see the length of
the train. They are there specifically to stop this type of incident.
Report the whole thing to Connex with time, date, service, station and
platform and stand by for a canned letter in response. While you're
waiting for said canned response you might like to report it to the
ATSB ( http://www.atsb.gov.au/ )

<gloat> Of course it never woulda happened in Moe where I now live and
commute to Melb from - we have actual station staff from first train to
last...:-) </gloat>

--

Humbug

Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 37th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3173

On 2007-11-25, humbug (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

<gloat> Of course it never woulda happened in Moe where I now live and
commute to Melb from - we have actual station staff from first train to
last...:-) </gloat>

Yeah, but you get to live in Moe, so it's a fair compromise 🙂

--
TimC
I can say that eating a raw, immature habañero pepper is nothing so
mild as tasting a meteorite. -- Mike Andrews in ASR

quote='humbug'vaudegiant said:

Had an interesting bike (train) trip on Melbourne Cup week-end. My

<snip horror story>

As others have said the drivers mirrors are probably useless BUT there
are 4 cameras and screens that allow the driver to see the length of
the train. They are there specifically to stop this type of incident.
Report the whole thing to Connex with time, date, service, station and
platform and stand by for a canned letter in response. While you're
waiting for said canned response you might like to report it to the
ATSB ( http://www.atsb.gov.au/ )

<gloat> Of course it never woulda happened in Moe where I now live and
commute to Melb from - we have actual station staff from first train to
last...:-) </gloat>

--

Humbug

Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 37th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3173[/QUOTE]

Well I got a very happy christmas letter from connex. Seems that they tried to contact us (no really, they did) but for some reason we failed to answer any of the phone numbers we supplied. Their letter, to paraphrase, says that

1/. People shouldn't try to get off trains when the doors are closing. I'll try to remember to tell my kids that the next time they should just stay on the train and enjoy the ride to Epping...alone.
2/. Once the driver activates the door-close mechanism, he/she has other "SAFETY" issues to worry about. Of course I understand that checking for potential obstacles on the tracks such as cows, cars or space junk is much more critical than ensuring that the a paying passenger who might be trapped in the door of a train has managed to clear themself.
3/. Their CCTV is wiped clean after 7 days, and because our written complaint didn't reach them in time, they have wiped the footage. This, I admit, is perfectly understandable. I often tape over programs that I haven't yet watched. Even one's that are really important. Connex received 2 verbal complaints minutes after the incident. The CCTV footage should have been examined or quarantined.
4/. Basically it was our fault. I infer this from the fact that there is nothing evening closely approximating an apology in the letter, and they state that thier systems are such that it's not their fault so it must be...um.....well ours really!
5/, Connex does, however, regret the "inconvenience" that this "issue" has caused........yes, don't you hate it how those life and limb threatening incidents can be such an inconvenience.
6/. Connex is looking forward to "restoring our confidence" in them, the next time we travel with them. Well, that certainly won't be in the near future as Connex bans peak hour travel with bikes (not that I travel on trains much with my bike, but sometimes...)

.....WTF is going on in this city.....bikes banned on peak hour city and V-line services.....cross city tunnels....and then. Late on Sunday night I attempted to catch the last train out of city with bike ( I had been at work all day and was due back in a 7), Because Connex runs very short trains at these times, the train was packed (more so than on any peak hour service). Even without a bike I would have been lucky to get on. Suffice to say I rode home at midnight, and have sent a letter to Connex asking for a refund on my $2.90 Sunday saver ticket..

Hi Ho, Hi Ho , it's off to the Ombudsman I go

Sorry for the rant

pat

Ahh, good old Moe Town.

Ridden up Coach Road lately?

"vaudegiant" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

humbug said:

vaudegiant said:

Had an interesting bike (train) trip on Melbourne Cup week-end. My

<snip horror story>

As others have said the drivers mirrors are probably useless BUT there
are 4 cameras and screens that allow the driver to see the length of
the train. They are there specifically to stop this type of incident.
Report the whole thing to Connex with time, date, service, station and
platform and stand by for a canned letter in response. While you're
waiting for said canned response you might like to report it to the
ATSB ( http://www.atsb.gov.au/ )

<gloat> Of course it never woulda happened in Moe where I now live and
commute to Melb from - we have actual station staff from first train
to
last...:-) </gloat>

--

Humbug

Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 37th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD
3173

Well I got a very happy christmas letter from connex. Seems that they
tried to contact us (no really, they did) but for some reason we failed
to answer any of the phone numbers we supplied. Their letter, to
paraphrase, says that

1/. People shouldn't try to get off trains when the doors are closing.
I'll try to remember to tell my kids that the next time they should just
stay on the train and enjoy the ride to Epping...alone.
2/. Once the driver activates the door-close mechanism, he/she has
other "SAFETY" issues to worry about. Of course I understand that
checking for potential obstacles on the tracks such as cows, cars or
space junk is much more critical than ensuring that the a paying
passenger who might be trapped in the door of a train has managed to
clear themself.
3/. Their CCTV is wiped clean after 7 days, and because our written
complaint didn't reach them in time, they have wiped the footage. This,
I admit, is perfectly understandable. I often tape over programs that I
haven't yet watched. Even one's that are really important. Connex
received 2 verbal complaints minutes after the incident. The CCTV
footage should have been examined or quarantined.
4/. Basically it was our fault. I infer this from the fact that there
is nothing evening closely approximating an apology in the letter, and
they state that thier systems are such that it's not their fault so it
must be...um.....well ours really!
5/, Connex does, however, regret the "inconvenience" that this "issue"
has caused........yes, don't you hate it how those life and limb
threatening incidents can be such an inconvenience.
6/. Connex is looking forward to "restoring our confidence" in them,
the next time we travel with them. Well, that certainly won't be in the
near future as Connex bans peak hour travel with bikes (not that I
travel on trains much with my bike, but sometimes...)

....WTF is going on in this city.....bikes banned on peak hour city
and V-line services.....cross city tunnels....and then. Late on Sunday
night I attempted to catch the last train out of city with bike ( I had
been at work all day and was due back in a 7), Because Connex runs very
short trains at these times, the train was packed (more so than on any
peak hour service). Even without a bike I would have been lucky to get
on. Suffice to say I rode home at midnight, and have sent a letter to
Connex asking for a refund on my $2.90 Sunday saver ticket..

Hi Ho, Hi Ho , it's off to the Ombudsman I go

Sorry for the rant

pat

--
vaudegiant

Paul Yates said:

Ahh, good old Moe Town.

Ridden up Coach Road lately?

Yep - last weekend AND I hurtled down it too...:-)

--

Humbug

Today is Sweetmorn, the 69th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3173

quote='humbug'Paul Yates said:

Ahh, good old Moe Town.
Ridden up Coach Road lately?

Yep - last weekend AND I hurtled down it too...:-)
[/QUOTE]

Ah, I think you'll find that Coach Rd is in Newborough not Moe. Pretty awesome looking hill. I've often thought that a loop arround Haunted Hills Rd, up past the tip / cemetery, down via Coach Rd and Back across Monash Rd would be a good workout.

My wife's family are down there (a number in the cemetery) but I've never had my bike down there.

RoryW

Rory Williams said:

humbug said:

Paul Yates said:

Ahh, good old Moe Town.
Ridden up Coach Road lately?

Yep - last weekend AND I hurtled down it too...:-)

Ah, I think you'll find that Coach Rd is in Newborough not Moe.

You're right, of course.

Quoted message said:

Pretty awesome looking hill. I've often thought that a loop arround
Haunted Hills Rd, up past the tip / cemetery, down via Coach Rd and
Back across Monash Rd would be a good workout.

Doing it that way is a pretty nice ride - the other way means going up
Coach Rd which isn't so nice - it's bloody STEEP in parts...:-)

Quoted message said:

My wife's family are down there (a number in the cemetery) but I've
never had my bike down there.

RoryW

--

Humbug

Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 72nd day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3173

vaudegiant said:

Well I got a very happy christmas letter from connex. Seems that they tried to contact us (no really, they did) but for some reason we failed to answer any of the phone numbers we supplied. Their letter, to paraphrase, says that

1/. People shouldn't try to get off trains when the doors are closing. I'll try to remember to tell my kids that the next time they should just stay on the train and enjoy the ride to Epping...alone.
2/. Once the driver activates the door-close mechanism, he/she has other "SAFETY" issues to worry about. Of course I understand that checking for potential obstacles on the tracks such as cows, cars or space junk is much more critical than ensuring that the a paying passenger who might be trapped in the door of a train has managed to clear themself.
3/. Their CCTV is wiped clean after 7 days, and because our written complaint didn't reach them in time, they have wiped the footage. This, I admit, is perfectly understandable. I often tape over programs that I haven't yet watched. Even one's that are really important. Connex received 2 verbal complaints minutes after the incident. The CCTV footage should have been examined or quarantined.
4/. Basically it was our fault. I infer this from the fact that there is nothing evening closely approximating an apology in the letter, and they state that thier systems are such that it's not their fault so it must be...um.....well ours really!
5/, Connex does, however, regret the "inconvenience" that this "issue" has caused........yes, don't you hate it how those life and limb threatening incidents can be such an inconvenience.
6/. Connex is looking forward to "restoring our confidence" in them, the next time we travel with them. Well, that certainly won't be in the near future as Connex bans peak hour travel with bikes (not that I travel on trains much with my bike, but sometimes...)

.....WTF is going on in this city.....bikes banned on peak hour city and V-line services.....cross city tunnels....and then. Late on Sunday night I attempted to catch the last train out of city with bike ( I had been at work all day and was due back in a 7), Because Connex runs very short trains at these times, the train was packed (more so than on any peak hour service). Even without a bike I would have been lucky to get on. Suffice to say I rode home at midnight, and have sent a letter to Connex asking for a refund on my $2.90 Sunday saver ticket..

Hi Ho, Hi Ho , it's off to the Ombudsman I go

Sorry for the rant

pat

After their quite pathetic letter, I have arranged to meet the Connex Customer Feedback Manager and the Train Services Manager. They wanted to meet at Flinders street and catch a train to Southern Cross with me so we could re-enact. I said that didn't want to dragg the kids out of school to load up on the train and go through it all again. I also pointed out that as we had arranged to meet early in the morning, and as I use a bike to get around, I would be unable to make it to this meeting because of the new regulations banning bikes on peak hour services. The person I spoke to took this point with a distinct lack of humour.
Is anyone on this forum interested in acting as an impartial observer at this meeting? It is at 9am February 4th, at Connex's Spring St(city) address

regards,

Pat

vaudegiant said:

The person I spoke to took this point with a distinct lack of humour.
Is anyone on this forum interested in acting as an impartial observer at this meeting? It is at 9am February 4th, at Connex's Spring St(city) address

That's a Monday? If there's no other takers I'll front up. Will promise to be nice, polite and remember to nod & smile.