MX: Off Track – Bus mix-up leaves commuters in cold

Published by Alex Makin on Monday 29th of January, 2007

The MX has reported on the latest public transport bungles with passengers stranded for up to two hours between Coburg and Upfield Stations because Connex failed to ensure that replacement services were available to handle a signalling fault that interrupted rail services.

Connex spokesman Andrew Cassidy said passengers could have taken other bus services, organised something else or “unfortunately had to hang on”.

Connex has once again demonstrated its contempt for Melbourne’s travelling public with public transport users being confronted with continued poor service. Connex has a responsibility to operate Melbourne’s public transport system in an efficient and reliable manner to tell people to simply ‘hang out’ displays pure contempt for the trasnport needs of Melbourne.

The Public Transport Users Association’s Alex Makin said the incident demonstrated Connex was losing its grip. That the incident happened at a lower-profile station was no excuse to neglect passengers and tell them to find their own way, he added. “It is nothing but an unreliable, shambolic system,” he said.