Article: Connex rival had near-perfect year

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Connex rival had near-perfect year

Connex rival had near-perfect year

    * Clay Lucas
    * April 2, 2009

HONG Kong train operator MTR ? which will submit on Tuesday its bid to run Melbourne's train system for the next 15 years ? ran 99.9 per cent of its trains within two minutes of their scheduled time last year.

MTR (Mass Transit Railway) is 76 per cent owned by the Hong Kong Government and runs one of the world's most modern metro systems.

It also has one of the world's most successful smartcard ticketing systems, the Octopus card.

It is impossible to compare Melbourne's train system, largely laid out in the late 19th century, to Hong Kong's system, started in 1975 with two lines and since expanded to nine.

The 211-kilometre system carries 3.4 million passengers each weekday. Melbourne's 372-kilometre system carries about 350,000 each weekday.

The French-owned Connex ? which will next week also hand in its bid for the contract to the Government, along with another French transport giant, Keolis ? this week released its worst performance results for late trains.

Connex, which operates the system on trains and tracks owned by the Government, ran about 6000 out of 55,000 trains late in March.

"Late" in Melbourne is any train running more than six minutes behind schedule. In Hong Kong, two minutes is considered late. Under Melbourne's new contracts, five minutes will be considered late.

Connex and MTR are no strangers. Stockholm Council in Sweden this year booted out Connex's parent company, Veolia, and replaced it with MTR to run its metro.

The council chose MTR because it offered a higher-quality service, not the cheapest price. Veolia is now suing Stockholm Council because its bid was cheaper.

The bid process to decide who wins the lucrative contract to run Melbourne's trains has been highly secretive.

Bidders have been gagged, and bid documents were to be confidential ? until they were obtained by the Opposition and handed to the media.

Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky yesterday defended the level of confidentiality surrounding the bids.

"The Government wants to achieve the best possible outcome for the people of Melbourne," her spokesman said. "That includes refraining from commenting on details of the bids and bidding companies while the selection process is under way."

Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said compared to international best practice, Melbourne was a joke. "The punctuality of trains in Melbourne is poor. In country Victoria, it is abysmal," he said.