Another day, another unruly passenger!

I wonder if it was the same one as earlier?

Very cosy on the 06:32 ex Ballan this morning due to some maintenance issues.3 car V'Locity, full and standing out of Ballarat. I was lucky, a kind young person squashed up in the luggage rack near the drivers cab door so Igot the last 'seat' on the train

Bacchus Marsh, with its own train issues this morning had us resembling the Bombay Express

Mike.

They were a bit trigger happy with that - the region mostly just scraping 30 degrees yesterday.

I noticed both the up and down midday-ish Shepparton trains also had the same treatment yesterday.

Maybe some Seymour depot drivers treated themselves to a short shift yesterday as part of the industrial action?

Maybe some Seymour depot drivers treated themselves to a short shift yesterday as part of the industrial action?

There was no industrial action yesterday apart from doing overtime. Seymour, Albury & Shepparton line stoppage is tomorrow (Wednesday). Although it is protected action there are very strict guidelines staff need to follow, drivers and other staff can't pick and choose what they want to do/not do.

Despite the focus being squarely on drivers in the media, its also worth pointing out that that these EA negotiations cover all operations staff including shunters, train controllers, station staff, conductors and so on.

Maybe some Seymour depot drivers treated themselves to a short shift yesterday as part of the industrial action?

There was no industrial action yesterday apart from doing overtime.

According to V/Line's website action was planned yesterday - and my usual train home (1648 Dn South Geelong) was replaced with buses - which station staff at Southern Cross stated was due to industrial action also.

The various Twitter feeds have been alive the past week or so with similar reasons against cancellations and service changes - even on days where no action was advertised for that particular (or sometimes any at all) line.

Are you suggesting V/Line are simply using this as their excuse of the month even when it is not connected to the true cause?

I do understand that staff can't just do as they please - 'treated themselves' was purely intended tongue in cheek.

Maybe some Seymour depot drivers treated themselves to a short shift yesterday as part of the industrial action?

There was no industrial action yesterday apart from doing overtime.

According to V/Line's website action was planned yesterday - and my usual train home (1648 Dn South Geelong) was replaced with buses - which station staff at Southern Cross stated was due to industrial action also.

The various Twitter feeds have been alive the past week or so with similar reasons against cancellations and service changes - even on days where no action was advertised for that particular (or sometimes any at all) line.

Are you suggesting V/Line are simply using this as their excuse of the month even when it is not connected to the true cause?

I do understand that staff can't just do as they please - 'treated themselves' was purely intended tongue in cheek.

"Are you suggesting V/Line are simply using this as their excuse of the month even when it is not connected to the true cause?"

....Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli would say.... Da...!

According to V/Line's website action was planned yesterday - and my usual train home (1648 Dn South Geelong) was replaced with buses - which station staff at Southern Cross stated was due to industrial action also.

The 'planned' action Monday was just the ban on overtime which resulted in trains being cancelled as there weren't enough drivers to cover all the services. Its a bit sad that V/Line considers staff staying home to be with their familys on their rostered days off as part of the industrial action but that's where we're at.

Vline still doing a great job of wrecking the services, better than what the workers can. One pm peak train disabled at Footscray last night about 17:45, created late running on Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines for most of the night. They probably had 100% late running after 18:00 for the rest of the night. Yesterday only the Traralgon line affected by industrial action, today Seymour, tomorrow Geelong Line.

Then again, with hot weather perhaps that will cause more grief today than the drivers.

Vline still doing a great job of wrecking the services, better than what the workers can. One pm peak train disabled at Footscray last night about 17:45, created late running on Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo lines for most of the night. They probably had 100% late running after 18:00 for the rest of the night. Yesterday only the Traralgon line affected by industrial action, today Seymour, tomorrow Geelong Line.

Then again, with hot weather perhaps that will cause more grief today than the drivers.

I was on that train, it was handled quite poorly thanks to poor communication but the frontline staff at Footscray did exceptionally well given the circumstances.

Sat on the train for roughly 20 minutes, then told by the conductor to disembark so that a recoupling move could take place, then we could all re-board and hopefully depart. As soon as we were all on the platform at Footscray it was announced that the train had been cancelled.

After standing around for another 10 minutes or so, it was announced that 'a bus' (singular) had been ordered to move the passengers from the train, so after walking over to the bus bays and waiting in line, passengers witnessed the front 3 carriages had been placed back into service and were carrying the few passengers that didn't follow the instruction to head for the bus.

By that time three more buses had been ordered but the trains were running again so knowing that there would have been a long line of services stuck behind the disabled train I decided to head back to the platform.

At about 7pm I was finally able to fit on a train that stopped, then got kicked off at Geelong due to late running. The next South Geelong train was also cancelled, and the (1913) Dn Warrnambool halted for 20 minutes to first let the Up Warrnambool through and then a string of empty cars, so I finally got off at South Geelong about 8.40. So about 3h 10m for what is normally a 55 minute trip.

Interestingly I witnessed the 1713 Dn Warrnambool diverted into Platform 2 at Footscray (normally reserved for Dn Sunbury Line sparks) so that's the first time since RRL opening that I've known any Geelong line service to travel that way. The wait at Footscray was not all that bad for a gunzel.

This rather interesting. It seems that V/Line not only blame Industrial Action when it is not the cause, but they also blame the Australian Rail Track Corporation again when they have no control over the track.




Edit: It appears that someone attempted to ask them why they were trying to shift the blame, and they didn't seem to want to answer the question.

Last night XPT to Sydney cancelled, train stabled shut down platform 1 at SX. was creating interesting moves in the yard with one platform unavailable. Dunno how this morning went. Still, we cannot blame Vline for that one.

RTBU has altered today’s plans account the heat, bans announced now cancelled. I suppose they will still get blamed

Would this be related to the overtime ban?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62346766@N07/49245822192

Last night XPT to Sydney cancelled, train stabled shut down platform 1 at SX. was creating interesting moves in the yard with one platform unavailable. Dunno how this morning went. Still, we cannot blame Vline for that one.

I'd hazard a guess that the cancellation was due to bushfires in the area between Picton and Mittagong.

Last night XPT to Sydney cancelled, train stabled shut down platform 1 at SX. was creating interesting moves in the yard with one platform unavailable. Dunno how this morning went. Still, we cannot blame Vline for that one.

I'd hazard a guess that the cancellation was due to bushfires in the area between Picton and Mittagong.

Could have diverted via Unanderra. In today's privatised/corporatised railway, maybe it's not convenient to make such short notice ad hoc arrangements. As for the passenger, who gives a rats... ?

Hmmm....V/Line promise of Services....worthy of an appearance on Gruen....


....and Delivery of said promised Service....










Link to the disaster that V/Line calls Service Delivery - https://twitter.com/vline_seymour

I originally posted about this in another thread but so as not to take that thread even further off course than I already have I'll continue it here.

Track work is taking place this week on the Bendigo line. A long string of new concrete sticks has been laid out next to the West track from around the 72km post heading in a down direction right up to the point where the 160 KM/H board marks the change in line speed

The placement of the new ties corresponds almost perfectly with spots where there are still timber sleepers remaining and it looks like this work will remove pretty much all timber from this section.

It remains to be seen whether the line speed will be increased from 130 > 160 in this section

Also of interest (well to me anyway) is whether V/Line will take advantage of Wednesdays industrial action to get some of the work done during daylight hours instead of doing the work at night.

Dont hold your breath about a line speed increase on account of the remianing sleepers being changed to concrete.

That line has smaller rail, the sleepers are the 'plank' versions.   Things like level crossing approaches need to be sorted before going to a higher speed.  Goingto 160km/hr s a big jump.

130km/hr is one thing, howvere the Gippland line sees speed restrictions on account of the track not being designed for 19t at 130km/hr.   (I havenot looked into the issue in detail but the speed resrictions suggest this and open to correction).   It suggests that the original line speed increase for a Velocity (19t) to 130km/hr was done without due dilligence.   Though in basic terms it appears to be a systems/organisation issue as the acual hardware on the ground is basically sound.

It should be noted that in WA the prospector rail car was able to run at 160km/hr on 47kg/m rail, though the concrete sleepers were full depth sleepers.  I forget their spacing, its been a long time, though 1600 per km sounds familair (ie closer spaced).

Minor Delay according to V/Line, yet a Major Delay according to Metro.