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Connex is dead, long live Metro Trains Melbourne

Firstly, I know I haven't posted in a while, my life kind of got in the way for a while there. Anyway, now that that's out of the way, on to tonight's topic. For those of you who weren't paying attention to the news today both Connex and Yarra Trams have lost their contracts to manage Melbournes Metro Rail and Tram services. This doesn't take effect until December so it'll be interesting to see what happens until then, I can't see Connex being very driven to improve services.

I'm sure almost all of you first had the response, no more Connex, hells yer! We've all associated Connex with everything that's bad about our public transport system, graffiti on trains, lack of security, delayed trains, canceled trains, and of course, where would we be without the trench-coat wearing cheap badge holding ticket inspectors. But the reality is quite different. Even though Connex seems to have failed at running our rail services for the past few months in particular we could just as easily see a repeat with a new company. In fact, conditions could get worse. We could just end up with slightly different coloured trains that run even slower.

The fact is I believe alot of the blame lies with our state government. Their lack of funding for metro rail infrastructure, especially the continual broken promises to deliver new trains, has left Connex with a car with flat tires. The fact is, it doesn't matter who's driving the car, it simply cannot work as well as a car with pumped up tires. As for Yarra Trams, I don't know why they're loosing the contract. The trams seem to be as on time as the possibly can to me. Without the government taking some very unpopular action and pushing for clearways and priority lanes to be extended trams simply cannot be relied upon and will always be effected by traffic conditions.

At least those taking over the contracts in December seem to have good backgrounds. With the consortium taking control of the Rail System involving the company that runs Hong Kongs rail system, where a train is late if it takes more than 60 seconds. The Tram System is set to be controlled by a company that runs trams in Paris, a city that has a very good tram system.

Let's hope these companies do better than their predecessors, otherwise we're just going to end up with a bunch of money wasted on paint. Let's just hope that our state government really is interested in improving Melbournes Metro Rail network.

Source - http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-train-tram-operators-for-melbourne-20090625-cxgx.html