Post #1998207

2026-04-16 00:52 UTC

The Sydney to Melbourne &quot;Express Passenger Train&quot; spanning Australia&#39;s most in-demand long distance route has been stationary for an hour only 2 hours into the journey. A level crossing ahead won&#39;t close, so we can&#39;t traverse it. Like, anywhere else a guard would close the crossing by waving a flag. The same train two days ago was over an hour late with similarly dumb excuses. We aren&#39;t going to beat climate change this way, folk!

Replies (1)

@DavidPenington@aus.social 2026-04-16 02:07

@cliffordheath@mastodon.social My mother in law's last Sydney to Melbourne train, in February, was 3 1/2 hours late, most of the delay in Victoria. We do need to improve this. The website didn't give meaningful information once it was later than the train's scheduled arrival time, which was difficult because she has Altzheomers. The website issue was likely caused by the challenge of matching equipment position pings with scheduled services when they are badly off schedule. I've worked with similar systems & it's tricky. It's made worse by long delays between stations because the system only gets timing information when it reaches a station, so a 3 hour delay between stations doesn't update the ETA until it finally gets to a station! Eg it's 6pm. The train hasn't reached Wangaratta, but it's still "on time" for a 6.30pm Melbourne arrival (no, it's 2 1/2 hours from Wangaratta to Melbourne)

Open ##2293107