Friday, February 27, 2009

"somewhat inadequate"

I wonder if those words were used on the day?

Staff shortage 'led to Connex Oaks Day debacle'

Connex did not have enough staff to respond to a rail meltdown on Oaks Day last year that left tens of thousands of furious racegoers stranded, the state's rail safety chief has found.


Trains between Flemington and the city failed on the afternoon of November 6 last year, just as 90,000 people were spilling from the racetrack.

Overhead wires melted above one train stopped between North Melbourne and Newmarket. This knocked out power and halted all services in the area.

Hundreds of passengers were left stranded aboard one hot, airless and broken down train. The risked their lives by abandoning the train and walking on train lines to escape.

Tens of thousands more in the CBD had peak-hour trips home thrown into chaos by the fault.
Victoria's director of public transport safety Alan Osborne has today released his findings into the incident.

He found Connex's contingency plans for the emergency were "somewhat inadequate".
However, despite finding Connex did not have sufficient staff to manage the incident, it had complied with all safety procedures, Mr Osborne said.

Experienced rail maintenance staff at the time of meltdown told The Age it had occurred due to long-term neglect of Melbourne's rail system.



Note: go to the link if you feel like reading the whole article.

12 comments:

Jayne said...

Somewhat inadequate sounds a bit like slightly terrifying or moderately appalling.

Anonymous said...

I can't help but thinking Connex are enjoying the popularity. Either that, or they have a gigantic PR department.

Jayne said...

"somewhat inadequate" is up there with "a little bit pregnant".
If you're going to use words, use them properly with all their gut-kicking meaning.
"as useless as tits on a bull"..."pissing into the wind"..." as handy as a glass door on a dunny" pretty accurately sums up the mess Connex made.

dam buster said...

FL - I agree. It is what a teacher puts on a report card!
RVB - Laine Harris the spoekswoman for Connex deserves a bravery award. She must be up there with doctors who say smoking is good for you.
Jayne - no arguments here

I also found it interesting they blamed the punters for stopping trains because they opened the doors and walked along the tracks to get out.

HMMM let me see, another 6 hours with 3000 of my closest friends when I need a pee vs dodging the 3:42 to werribee.

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