Not a great journey - 07.06.08

[Mozz]

Saturday evening 07.06.08
Decided to catch public transport into the city tonight to make a 6.00pm appointment (no wiggle room, had to meet at 6.00pm)

Consulted timetable on QR site, 5.10pm from Oxley arriving at central at 5.35pm would provide ample time to make appointment.

Swiped go card at Oxley and boarded 5.10 from Oxley, everything was going well until we hit Indooroopilly at around 5.20pm. Then it went pear shaped in a big way.

Waited at Indooroopilly. After 5 minutes announcement that there was a delay. Then minutes later told of an incident at Auchenflower and a 15 ? 20 minute delay. No worries I thought, I can still make my appointment.

BUT then announcements over the train specifically for people catching aircraft flights and directions for them to use the emergency intercoms to contact the guard, then announcements for them to meet staff near the front of the train on the platform.

I became concerned. At this time it was around 5.55pm and 35 minutes since we arrived at the station. I decided to ring QR and was put through to passenger services. They advised they were working on a train travelling on Platform 4 (decommissioned and under construction platform at Indooroopilly) but there was some issues about the removal of barriers and construction material.

I hopped off the train and went to investigate. There were no QR staff in sight, there was no one around to remove or make safe the construction zone of Platform 4.

I then decided to take the initiative in the absence of any credible information or assistance to complete my journey into the Brisbane CBD by walking to the bus station at Indooroopilly.

There I worked out what bus was going to the City and hopped on. I then had an interesting conversation with the bus driver, who didn?t appear to understand what a GoCard was. I provided him with information that I touched on at Oxley around 5.08pm but was stuck on a train which wasn?t going anywhere. He didn?t appear to know exactly what to do but insisted I touch on, despite my protests that I may be hit with a penalty. And yes I was then stung with a $5 penalty. His advice was to travel to the city but not touch off when arriving in the City, which I followed.

I arrived at my destination around 75 minutes later than planned due to the incident.

I then enjoyed a great evening with friends and around 11.30 decided to depart and catch public transport home.

I arrived at Central railway station around 11.40pm to catch the 12.06am to Oxley.

I engaged station staff and explained the situation I had been involved with previously but no one could help me as they don?t have the ability to read or comprehend the complexity of the gocard.

Thus they advised that I should touch on at Central and touch off at Oxley.

I touched on at Central however in the course of touching on and explaining the situation to rail staff, another touch was registered, but rail staff told me it would be ok, just continue with my journey.

I caught the train to Oxley and attempted to touch off at the end of the journey around 12.30am however when touching off the only device at the Oxley station told me to ?seek assistance? but there was no one to assist.

I arrived home, and decided to put the information down in written form and check the transactions online. As of now I have been charged $8.00 in fees and penalties for what I believe should be a $3.20 journey into the city and back again (zone 1-3 for a go card user having already completed 6 x journeys previously in the week from Monday ? Friday)



07-Jun-08 11:45:26 PM   Touch On   Central       
07-Jun-08 11:45:12 PM   Cancel Touch On   Central       
07-Jun-08 11:44:26 PM   Touch On   Central       
07-Jun-08 11:44:26 PM   Touch Off   Central   -3.00   *
07-Jun-08 06:12:43 PM   Touch On   Indooroopilly Shopping Centre - Platform B [BT002200]       
07-Jun-08 06:12:43 PM   Touch Off   Indooroopilly Shopping Centre - Platform B [BT002200]   -5.00   *
07-Jun-08 05:08:00 PM   Touch On   Oxley      

The first issue is one of proper communication when situations arise on the train network. Don?t tell people it will be 15 mins and then let it get to 35 minutes of delay and not provide an update.

Secondly the gocard implementation is complex, I couldn?t understand, bus driver couldn?t understand, rail staff didn?t understand, no one had the ability to read the card to try and work out what the situation may have been. I have no idea what ?seek assistance? message from the go card terminal is supposed to mean where 1. there is no staff available and/or 2. staff that may be available don?t have the ability to read the gocard or assist in the issue at hand.

[ozbob]

Thanks for this report.

With your permission Mozz I would like to forward this  report to the Minister for Transport, Translink, the TransLink Transit Authority, QR, BCC, and the Opposition Transport Spokesman.

Your experience demonstrates much of what many have been highlighting concerning some aspects of the go card roll out.

It is confusing, and when bus is substituting for rail (eg. track closures) the BBL and similar buses used do not have go card equipment either.  It is fast becoming a circus.

'Incidents' happen unfortunately, but timely communication is important as you note.  The continued drive to remove staff from stations and trains (eg. possibly guards) just makes the whole system less secure and subject to constant interruptions. We should be putting staff back on stations and making sure passengers are kept properly informed.

Translink could be awkward with this as they are likely to suggest that you should have touched off when the journey was broken at Indooroopilly.  To that I would suggest that the general confusion and absence of any clear advice was the reason and you should be refunded. 

Admin

[Derwan]

Purely from a Go Card perspective, the correct procedure would have been to touch off at Indooroopilly train station.  The touch on in the bus would've then registered as a continuation.  You mustn't have touched off when you left the bus so were hit with a $3 penalty when you touched on at Central later in the evening.  If you'd touched on/off correctly, you would've been charged the correct fee.  (Of course, I understand it would've been hard to think straight when stressing about making it to an appointment.  Perhaps TransLink can cut you a bit of slack considering the delayed service.)

You'll get hit with another $5 penalty when you next touch on - but you'll be eligible for a refund as the Oxley machine malfunctioned.