Saturday, August 2, 2008

Rail Rage

The real post is coming soon...
Yesterday I was at a friend's house in South Melbourne and to get home, I decided to take the 112 tram. There was no problem with this and I got off at the Spencer and Collins St Stop. I rushed over to Southern Cross Station and checked the boards for Cranbourne/Pakenham trains. The next train was due to arrive in 13 minutes. I walk over to platform 12 and sit down there, wondering about the absence of people. About 8 minutes out of 13, an announcement is made about a "delayed" Frankston train on platform 13. I go up the escalators, and sure enough, I find a unnoticeable noticeboard telling the passengers for P/C/F to go to platform 13. I waited at platform 13 for a while and eventually the PIDs show the next train to be a Bairnsdale, then a Traralgon in 2 hours. I had no clue what is going on. The Bairnsdale approaches in the distance, but stops far too short of the platform. I then decided that Southern Cross is a hellhole and go to 11 to catch the next Flinders Street train so that I could tell what is going on. Once I got onto the platform, my Pakenham train arrived on platform 13. I rushed up the escalators, across the mezzanine and get stopped by maintenance staff who take 15 seconds to start the previously non moving escalator down to 13/14, After he was done, I rushed down the escalator and just catch the train. As the doors close, I heard one extremely elderly V/Line staff remark, "This has got Connex written all over this".

I wasn't the only one who had no idea.
Calembeena

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