SCHWOIT

Sydney has once again suffered a third world service from City Rail. The North Shore line was halted due to the failure of overhead power lines on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Three trains were stranded mid track, in fact two were within tunnels. The passengers were subjected to stifling conditions on these stricken trains as without power there is no air conditioning.
Perhaps, worse than that reports from affected passengers indicate that the on train staff were uncooperative, not informative and arrogant. Reportedly announcements were to the extent of “We do not know what is going on and the doors will not be opened”. Rest assured the guards compartment at a minimum would have been wide open. Now whilst I agree that opening the doors may not be wise in most situations, when passengers are for all intent and purposes imprisoned for hours on end, surely the doors should be opened to allow air flow.
I feel sorry for the passengers that have had to suffer yet another City Rail failure. I can only imagine the terrible conditions these people were subjected to aboard a crowded peak hour train for hours without any air movement. I have trouble on a 30-40 minute trip on the the shame of the fleet, the Craptaculars, which at least offers minimal relief via the windows.
The train services were eventually replaced by buses. As we know a bus is considerably smaller than a train carriage in capacity, and I have it directly from an affected passenger that it was almost impossible to get on. It took that City Rail client 3 hours to get home, and that included them walking across the bridge as it was more efficient than waiting for a bus.
Shame City Rail, shame!

Tags: city rail, cityfail, cityrail, cityrail fails, customer service, customer service fail, fail, fails, innovation, investment, new south wales, nsw, nsw public transport, nsw public transport fail, public transport, public transport fails, rail, screwed, service, shittyrail, sydney public transport, timetable, train, trains
Comments Closed

Today there has been nothing but reasons to blog. It is quite amazing really. The driver for this blog is City Rail. Normally I would not blog about City Rail unless I had ridden a train and had another shocker of an experience. Today though, I did not ride a train, however City Rail have found a new way to affect customer relations with myself.

In my earlier post Cattle Class on a Craptacular I reported the disgrace that is the Mortdale train station elevator project. I also reported that I had lodged a request for feedback via the City Rail website. At the time I predicted either no response, or a response after the elevators were turned on. Today, after lodging a secondary enquiry, I finally received a reply.

Dear Miss Thompson,

Thank you for contacting CityRail in relation to your query in reference to Mortdale station.

After speaking with the Station Manager at Mortdale they have advised that escalators are expected to be operational by Wednesday 7 March 07.

I trust this information is of assistance.

Yours Sincerely,

[Name Suppressed]
Correspondence Case Manager.
RailCorp Customer Relations.

Now there are several issues with this response. First off I am not a female. This has been assumed by the responder and as with all assumptions has made an ASS of yoU and ME. This is a disgrace for someone that is a Correspondence Case Manager and in RailCorp Customer Relations. No wonder noone feels like the company cares with basic errors like this.

Second, I enquired about elevators not escalators. An elevator is essentially a box that is cabled between floors, whereas an escalator is a moving stair case. They are totally different approaches to get similar results. Escalators though are not friendly to the disabled and infirmed among us.

Thirdly, I am being informed about the expected operational date 2 days after they should be operational. This email should thus confirm their operational status. However, it is not.

I will now be taking a walk to Mortdale Station and verify for myself that the elevators are operational. If they are not I will be sending yet another feedback to City Rail.

Tags: city rail, cityfail, cityrail, cityrail fails, customer service, customer service fail, fail, fails, innovation, investment, new south wales, nsw, nsw public transport, nsw public transport fail, public transport, public transport fails, rail, screwed, service, shittyrail, sydney public transport, timetable, train, trains
4 Comments »

Well today I went into the office and once again had the displeasure of riding two crowded Craptacular trains. This morning I got to the station in the midst of peak hour. Soon the first crowded Craptacular pulled up. I do not think anyone else would have been able to get on the first 4 carriages, atleast until Kogarah where the majority of the pimple faced teenagers disembark. I could have got on this train, but decided I would wait for a more comfortable ride. There is usually a Tangara following this times Craptacular.
15 minutes later another Craptacular pulled up. Again it looked like the people on the train had been packed in like a sheep on the back of a truck. Everyone appeared to be suffering at least mild heat stress. It was another disaster, and I once again preferred to wait with the hope of comfort.
15 minutes later yet another Craptacular pulled up. This one atleast had some seating available on the last carriage. I got on and managed to secure a seat. As is traditional in a Craptacular the heat became oppressive within 2 stops. Once the acne brigade disembarked at Kogarah there was little relief, in fact it got worse. For each teen that disembarked there seemed to be 2 or 3 adults board. The heat became oppressive once more. I was thankful to get off the train.
This afternoon I got to the station and there was once again a Craptacular waiting to whisk me away. Once again it looked like the people had been shoe horned into position and there was no room to move.
I decided to give that train a pass and wait for the next. The next train was yet another fine example of a City Rail Craptacular. Yet again it resembled a livestock truck more than a viable human transport option. Again the passengers looked to have some level of heat distress.
The next train was a Tangara. Unfortunately, it did not stop where I needed it to. This train was relatively full, but the passengers appeared quite comfortable.
Finally, a train that suited me appeared. Again it was a Craptacular although not full. I managed to get a seat and was reasonably comfortable. Mainly thanks to every one of the pitifully small windows on the carriage being open. As I was at the back I did manage to feel a breeze, albeit a slight one.
These trains are a complete disgrace and should be removed from service. They are uncomfortable and a potential health hazard. As it is election time I will put my vote to whomever promises to ensure that City Rail remove these disasters waiting to happen from the network within 2 years of election. In fact, they should be gone within 12 months. So Mr Debnam and Mr Iemma make your play for my vote, if you dare!

Tags: city rail, cityfail, cityrail, cityrail fails, customer service, customer service fail, fail, fails, innovation, investment, new south wales, nsw, nsw public transport, nsw public transport fail, public transport, public transport fails, rail, screwed, service, shittyrail, sydney public transport, timetable, train, trains
Comments Closed

Today I have again been screwed by Shitty City Rail. I have had to ride on 2 of the Craptaculars today. A Craptacular train are those without air conditioning that are still in operation within the Shitty City Rail services. These trains are ridiculous and are borderline dangerous as the heat build up is immense due to the pathetically small windows not allowing air to flow efficiently throughout the train.

A perfect example of this was the first Craptacular I had the displeasure of riding at 7:03am this morning, and within four stops the heat buildup had everyone fanning themselves with whatever they had available. Outside it would have been no more that 20 degrees celsius, which is by no means warm. The train was also covered in tags, a pointless passtime, however had clearly not had a proper clean in months.

The second Craptacular that I boarded at Redfern was truly a third world cattle class train. I swear that I saw the guards with shoe horns and cattle prods cramming patrons on to the Craptacular. I went to the last car in hope that it was not packed to the rafters. Unfortunately I was wrong and found that it was. In fact I looked around the car and saw faces of Indian and African descent. All the patrons were talking in languages other than English. I then looked around for the elderly gentleman holding a chicken, thankfully I did not see that.

So there I was surrounded and the heat was ridiculous within travelling to Central, which is one stop away. Thankfully a large number of patrons disembarked there. I was though still unable to sit as the train was still full, by the time the train had travelled 2 more stops the train was sufficiently empty that the airflow from the Craptaculars open windows normalised the trains temperature.

These third world trains are a disgrace and should be removed from service ASAP!

Another joke is the Mortdale Station upgrade. The platform and facilities have been upgraded and look great. Another planned upgrade was elevators for elderly and disabled patrons of Shitty City Rail. Whilst the elevators are physically present they are still not in operation. The elevators have been there for several months and technicians looking at them daily. At one stage the entire station had no power whilst they connected them to the power, that was in October. However, they are still non-functional. Though I am not an elevator technician I have to ask how hard can it be to debug an elevator that goes up and down a single level.

Tags: city rail, cityfail, cityrail, cityrail fails, customer service, customer service fail, fail, fails, innovation, investment, new south wales, nsw, nsw public transport, nsw public transport fail, public transport, public transport fails, rail, screwed, service, shittyrail, sydney public transport, timetable, train, trains
5 Comments »