Service... what service (Connex)

Member Name: gravelld

Product:	Connex
Date:	23/05/01 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Makes you realise how pleasant the rest of your life is

Disadvantages: Scheduling stupidity, Train interior, Cancellations

I often wonder who I have the most contempt for, Connex operations managers or the halfwits that employed them in the first place.

Naturally, I appreciate that Connex are trying to operate over an already crowded network. This, however, does not account for some of the sheer stupidity that I have noticed since starting to commute into Victoria on their South-Central 'service'.

First of all, there's the mystery of the shrinking trains. Their reaction to ridiculously crowded carriages seems to be to spontaneously deploy even shorter trains every now and then, just to make your life a little more stressful.

Secondly, there's the trains themselves. None of them, including the 'new' (i.e. post 70's) ones are at all suitable for carrying the vast number of people that commute. There isn't, for instance, enough handrails to accomodate the standing passengers (of which there are many). They still even send down those stupidly out-of-date slam door trains.

Apparently the franchise is to be taken over soon. While I doubt we'll see much improvement in terms of running times, at least we may see some professionalism.

Summary: