Melbourne’s Connex train service comes in for a lot of flak but it’s not all bad.
OK, so delays happen, trains get overcrowded and air-con systems can’t take the heat when it hits 40 degrees in the summer.
But compared to the London Underground, travelling on Melbourne’s trains is a picnic. I commuted daily on the Northern Line (also known as the misery line) from South London up to Kentish Town for seven years. No mere hop, it was a 15-stop journey with plenty of opportunities for delays, problems, stoppages, strikes and indecipherable announcements over crackly loud speakers.
On a good day, I would get a seat at some stage on the outward journey and always on the return so I did manage to get a lot of reading done. On a bad day, however, I would arrive at Clapham South Station to find queues of people backed up all the way up the stairs into the ticket hall and out onto the street.
On such spectacular delay days, the only option was to go home and get the car or take the bus, which would involve a slow crawl through the traffic. Either way I arrived late and frazzled at work.
So on moving to Melbourne I was impressed by the regularity of the trains with most delays only involving a maximum of ten minutes. Even when travelling at peak hour, I find the experience pretty easy as the trains are rarely so crowded that I find my nose level with someone else’s armpit. The overcrowding in the London Underground trains redefines the sardine in a can metaphor. It’s amusing that the normally so reserved British have to endure this enforced intimacy with total strangers, fragrant and not so fragrant.
But what I love most about taking the train from my south-eastern Melbourne suburb are the charming hosts who put a smile on everyone’s face. I hadn’t taken the train for a while but when I turned up last Friday morning, I got the warmest welcome from Ralph, one of the hosts. We exchanged news and views; Ralph had been over to Sri Lanka for this mother’s 90th birthday and showed me the photos. I told him about going back to England for my father’s 80th earlier in the year.
These guys (Joseph is normally there too) give you more of a boost than a cup of coffee. They deal in smiles, they known most regular train users by name and make everyone feel special. The platform has its own sense of community and at Christmas Ralph and Joseph rig up lights and play carols as well as collecting food for charity. At other times of year, the cheerful duo writes up special messages wishing us happy holidays or good luck in the Melbourne Cup.
It’s guys like these that keep communities alive and foster a sense of belonging. Give or take a few delays, cancellations and slip-ups, it makes travelling by train a warm and enjoyable experience.
