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Connex Melbourne

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Connex Melbourne Proprietary Limited
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryPublic Transport
FoundedAugust 1999
HeadquartersAustralia Melbourne, Australia
Area served
Melbourne, Australia
Key people
Bruce Hughes (CEO)
ProductsTransport Services
Increase AUD$70 million (2004-2005)
Number of employees
2,500+[1]
ParentVeolia Environnement
DivisionsVeolia Transportation
Websitewww.connexmelbourne.com.au
Connex Melbourne Pty. Ltd.
Melbourne railway network
Overview
HeadquartersMelbourne
LocaleMelbourne,Victoria, Australia
Dates of operation1999–
PredecessorPublic Transport Corporation
M>Train
Technical
Track gauge63

Connex Melbourne is a wholly owned subsidiary of French company Veolia Environnement. Connex has a State Government franchise to operate all suburban passenger rail services in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Connex's contract was extended on 21 August 2007 and now expires on 30 November 2009.[2]

The company utilises a fleet of 329 trains to operate over 1900 services carrying 616,000 passengers each weekday.[3] In 2007 187.4 million passenger trips were made.[3]

History

See also: Public Transport Corporation

Melbourne Transport Enterprises (now Connex Melbourne) was awarded a franchise to operate the then government owned Hillside Trains rail services in Melbourne's eastern and north-east suburbs in August, 1999. The franchise for the southern parts of Melbourne's suburban train network was awarded to National Express, under the now-defunct Bayside Trains name (later renamed M>Train).

Upon National Express's withdrawal from Victorian transportation, the Government assumed operational responsibility of M>Train. Early in 2003, the Government began negotiations with Connex to assume responsibility for all of Melbourne's suburban train network. A new partnership agreement was reached in February 2004, which awarded Connex the exclusive right to operate Melbourne's entire suburban train network as from 18 April 2004.

Connex's contract was extended on 21 August 2007 and now expires on 30 November 2009, with the State Government of Victoria having an option for an 18-month extension.[4][5]

Following Veolia's rebranding of its transport operations from Connex to Veolia Transport on all other transport systems world-wide in late 2005 and early 2006, Connex Melbourne is the only Veolia company to retain the Connex name.

Contractual details

Responsibilities

  • Connex is responsible for operation and maintenance of Melbourne's suburban railway system, including manning stations and fare enforcement.
  • Connex is not responsible for capital works such as expanding the system, but on a number of jobs has managed the project on behalf of the State Government.

Government subsidy

Connex Melbourne is paid an average of AU$345 million per annum, between 2004-2009 from the State Government of Victoria to operate the suburban train network in Melbourne. At the end of the 2004-2009 franchise agreement Connex will have been paid well over AU$2 billion[6] by the state government of Victoria. In addition to the base contract payments, other payments from the State Government of Victoria to Connex include:

  • Farebox
  • Concession top-ups
  • Maintenance
  • Rolling stock adjustments
  • Incentives
  • Capital projects
  • Other

Reliability benchmarks

Under the terms of its contract with the State Government, Connex Melbourne is obligated to deliver on time (no more than 59 seconds early, and no more than 5:59 minutes late) performance, system-wide, of no less than 92%. Connex is also obligated to deliver no less than 98% of scheduled train services, and significantly reduce any time spent by passengers waiting due to a delay, over a 1998 benchmark.

Fines for failure to meet service obligations are deducted from contract fees paid by the government to Connex. As of July 2006, the most recent fine imposed on Connex by the government is $5.1 million AUD. Connex has paid almost $70 million in penalty payments for poor performance since it took full control of the train network in 2004.[7] Connex releases performance data on a monthly basis, usually put on view at railway stations. Fines and customer satisfaction levels are detailed in the quarterly 'Track Record' report released by the Department of Infrastructure.[8]

Operations

A 'Comeng' train operated by Connex
For details of railway operations, see Railways in Melbourne

Fleet

The Connex Melbourne fleet consists of:

The majority of the rollingstock is owned by the Victorian Government though VicTrack also owns the majority of.

Maintenance

Connex is responsible for maintaining their train fleet. This responsibility is outsourced to two companies, United Melbourne Transport Ltd, a subsidiary of the United Group, maintains the Alstom X'Trapolis and the older Hitachi and Comeng trains; and Siemens maintains after the remainder of the Siemens fleet.[9] Innovonics Limited has carried out a contract to re-enable Comeng sets from both sides of the system to run on the entire system again, along with a CCTV upgrade.[10][11]

Connex is also responsible for the maintenance of the electrified suburban network, being contracted to Mainco, a subsidiary of the United Group.[9] The Department of Infrastructure (DOI) also has input into infrastructure related issues and major rail projects.

Fare enforcement

Public Transport Authorised Officers (commonly known as Ticket Inspectors or Revenue Protection Officers) are employed to work across Melbourne's public transport network. As well as reporting ticketing and behavioural offences, Authorised Officers are also employed to assist at special events and provide customer information. They are employed by Connex, but exercise a legislative power.[9]

Authorised Officers are accredited by the Victorian Department of Infrastructure to exercise powers similar to those of police (included the power of arrest) when aboard vehicles operating under Metlink or when on Department of Infrastructure-owned premises, such as railway stations or train tracks.[12] Officers are required to abide by the State Government-established 'Authorised Officer Code of Conduct' and violations of this code are prosecuted. The Code of Conduct states that an Authorised Ticket Officer use discretion when reporting an alleged offender, and must supply their name and work address when asked.[13]

If an Authorised Officer believes that a passenger has committed an offence (for example, by failing to produce a ticket), they have the right to request their full legal name and address after having explained the nature of the alleged offence. The inspector also has the right to request some proof of the given information, any proof being acceptable as long as it constitutes a "verification" of the information which satisfies the inspector as to the alleged offender's identity. Refusal to identify oneself, or providing a false name to the ticket inspector will ordinarily cause the ticket inspector to contact Victoria Police and detain the passenger until the police arrive.[14]

The Authorised Officer then forwards a report (formally known as a Report of Non Compliance) with these details, as well as the specific nature and circumstances of the violation to the Department of Infrastructure, who then process the report and decide upon any penalties. Any fines levied are payable to the Department, not to Connex. However, once the Department successfully retrieves the fined amount from the violator, Connex receives a small administration fee.[14]

Authorised Officers have come under fire from lobby groups and sections of the community for being overly aggressive in enforcing ticketing requirements. This has been accentuated by several media articles in the mainstream Melbourne press of mixed opinions regarding the system or reporting passengers detected travelling without tickets. Specifically, two main charges are frequently heard: Officers have been requiring young school-children to produce Concession I.D. cards, even though the law only requires it for children over 15 years of age unless the person is travelling on a Student Pass; The second being that Officers have been reporting people for not possessing a ticket, even when there was no opportunity for the person to purchase a ticket is often heard. The Victorian Transport Act of 1983 has a provision which states that travel without a ticket is legal in circumstances where the passenger took all reasonable steps to purchase a ticket immediately before and after their travel,[15] but one was not available for purchase.

Marketing

Despite the formation of Metlink to deliver coordinated marketing initiatives across the entire Melbourne public transport network, Connex has also undertaken their own marketing campaigns. TV advertisements featuring Sheena Easton and a trainload of passengers singing her 1980 hit Morning Train (9 to 5) screened during April and May 2004.

More recent campaigns generally focus on commuter behaviour and etiquette; in mid 2005 Connex launched a print & TV advertising campaign featuring Humpty Dumpty and focusing on safety initiatives, the "Don't Hold Others Back" campaign of 2006 featured bleak "cold war-esque" imagery of commuters struggling to board a train, while a more recent 'train etiquette' campaign has featured fictitious character Martin Merton PhD, "the worlds #1 expert on train etiquette" offering advice to passengers on such topics as mobile phone use, flatulence and other low level behavioural annoyances of train travel. Many commuters have viewed this as being offensive and condescending, particularly in light of the poor levels of customer service provided by many Connex officers.[16]

Connex SMS service

Connex also has an SMS service which allows commuters to receive updates about train delays of more than 15 minutes on their phone for free.[17] There are reports that state that quite often SMS messages are never sent in relation to cancellations or delays.[citation needed]

On 23 February 2007 an attacker broke into the gateway used by the SMS system and sent threatening messages to over 10,000 commuters who had subscribed to the service.[18]

ALLAHU AKBR FROM CONNEX! our inspectorS Love Killing people - if you see one coming, run. Want to bomb a train? they will gladly help. See you in hell!

A Connex spokesman admitted that this was a hoax and that the hackers were only able to send the message and could not get access to the customer database.[18]

See also

Sources

  1. ^ Connex Melbourne: About Us
  2. ^ Swinburne Institute for Social Research: Putting the Public Interest back into Public Transport
  3. ^ a b Connex Melbourne: Fast Facts
  4. ^ The Age: 'Connex wins extension' - August 21, 2007
  5. ^ The Age: 'Connex asks for second chance on trains' - July 1, 2007
  6. ^ PUTTING THE PUBLIC INTEREST BACK INTO PUBLIC TRANSPORT
  7. ^ Herald Sun: 'Tussle to stay on track' - August 22, 2007
  8. ^ Track Record Monthly performance bulletin, accessed 10 July 2006
  9. ^ a b c Department of Infrastructure: Who's who in Victoria's public transport network
  10. ^ Innovonics Concorde project ASX announcement, accessed 10 July 2006]
  11. ^ Updated ALSTOM Comeng sets with Innovonics gear, Railpage Australia (enthusiast site), accessed 10 July 2006
  12. ^ Department of Infrastructure: Authorised Officers
  13. ^ Department of Infrastructure: Code of Conduct for Authorised Officers
  14. ^ a b Metlink Melbourne: FAQs
  15. ^ TRANSPORT ACT 1983
  16. ^ Connex Whingers: 'Can't Help Myself (Comments)' - Wednesday, July 12, 2006
  17. ^ Connex SMS Updates
  18. ^ a b Connex_SMS_hacking_under_probe
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