Connex
Fan-bloody-tastic, you can get free public transport in Melbourne today. That’s a great offer, especially if your train isn’t cancelled. Like the 200 – 300 trains that were cancelled yesterday.
Private public transport is a joke in Melbourne: everyone blaming everyone else. Unless Kosky wants to get Japan Rail to run our trains (get them to bring their brilliant PASMO cards with them too and dump MYKI) then I think the Government should bring our public transport back under public management, if only to quench the blame cycle. For a nuanced analysis of who might really be to blame, this is interesting.
Kosky says that private operators bring “innovation and international experience.” I really can’t see how Connex’s innovation (what innovation?) and experience are worth the $589 million that Connex pocketed in 2007 for running the network. The real reason is probably more like that Kosky doesn’t want to run a public transport system. Bring the transport back into public hands and invest the $589m in upgrading and extending the infrastructure. Trains to Chadstone, Doncaster, Monash and Melbourne Unis would be a good start.
the main argument against putting the transport system back under government control, is the miserable, mismanaged shit-fight that is city-rail in sydney.