Friday's piece of fun on the train was so enjoyable that it needs to be written about.
That's my little shot across the bow to give everyone who doesn't care about Veolia Transport / Ontrack related whining the chance to look away.
It started off with me sipping a beer in a Mt Eden pub watching the Black Caps game after visiting my father in hospital. I checked my phone for any delay related SMS messages, and as it was clear I headed off to the station. Upon reaching the station the messages began to come in, one or two via text, and another announced via the PA. It's worth mentioning a couple of things here:
- The SMS messages announced delays of "up to 20 minutes". My initial reaction might have been that I could have stayed in the pub if they'd sent out the alert earlier, however previous experience shows that is simply not the case. I've previously been advised that trains have been running 30 minutes late, only to wander to the station to find out that the train actually departed perfectly on time. Sometimes a "20 minute delay" means the departure is delayed, while other times it means that the 20 minute delay may or may not apply over the entire duration of the trip, should you travel end to end. Either way, it's a guessing game.
- No stations other than Britomart have train ETAs listed on them. None. You're guessing.
So after 20-25 minutes a train comes along, and it's pretty obvious that the thing is "full". The quotation marks are for a reason, bear with me here. So a few people hop on, but pretty soon we're out of space with a fair few people still on the station.
I ask the completely incompetent ever friendly conductor "Excuse me, which train is this?" - because with all the delays I really had no idea, and by my calculation the next train was the express. He replied by not answering my question "Don't worry, express train is right behind!". This is great, because the Express train is... well, it's an Express train. It doesn't usually stop. Mr Conductor is of course deaf to all of this, and is long gone in a flash, hopping back on the train which pulls out - slowly.
Now I said before that the train was "full". If you looked at the doorways and entrances it did indeed appear to be full, however as the train pulled off it became pretty clear to anyone who's travelled on the trains of other cities that there was in fact a lot of room left. Seriously, pretty much every carriage could have easily fit in another 3-4 people if it's occupants had been a little more considerate.
So the train had pulled out of the station, and next it grinds to a halt just around the corner. It sort of starts moving and limps away, and a couple of minutes later the express train approaches. The train driver leans his hand out the window and gives us all a cheery wave as he drives right through the station. As he does so, we get a glimpse inside the train, which is of course hardly full at all. The express train then grinds to a halt just outside of the station, where all of us standing there can see it. It sits there for about 5 minutes in some strange display of incompetence and defiance rolled into one.
So we wait another 25 minutes or so (time became irrelevant at this point) until the next train (which should be going all the way out to Waitakere) comes along. We remaining passengers board the train, and it trundles off.
However just before Henderson station we're informed that the train is terminating early! All passengers must disembark and catch the next train. Of course, by my calculation the next train would normally be about 40 minutes behind this one. Does that mean that with the hour delay on top of it, that we'd be waiting an hour and 40 minutes? Who knows - not me as I made the rest of the way home using non train methods.
What a waste of an evening. My train ticket this month has been completely wasted, as I've ended up making alternate arrangements for roughly 10-15 trips in the month of February - and we're only at the 18th right now! A monthly pass only just scrapes in as the more economical option when it's used both ways for all week days in the month, so take out a few trips and it's just money wasted.
One of the most frustrating things here is feeling completely powerless as the customer. Veolia Transport's terms of carriage basically exempts them from providing anything at all, and as customers we're treated like crap and expected to take it. Surely if I purchase travel services to take me from x to y and never arrive then I didnt receive the service that I paid for? And that's not even taking the delay of 1-2 hours into consideration.
When reading the terms of carriage it would seem that our rights are long gone. It's also interesting to note that this terms of carriage isn't linked anywhere too visible from the Veolia transport website - I needed to use google to find it. Anyone got any advice or opinions on taking transport related companies to task in the interest of getting better service? I'd love to hear from you.