Connex Melbourne

History

In October 1997, in preparation for privatisation, it was announced the Public Transport Corporation's suburban rail operations would be split into two business units, Bayside Trains and Hillside Trains. PTC's tram operations was also split in preparation for privatisation. The Melbourne Transport Enterprises consortium, consisting of CGEA Transport Asia Pacific Holdings (CTAP) (a subsidiary of CGEA, later known as Connex), GEC Alsthom Australia Ltd (later known as Alstom) and Banque Nationale de Paris, was formed following the announcement to bid on PTC's rail and tram operations.

Hillside Trains, formed on 1 July 1998, took over operation of the Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein, Glen Waverley, Epping (now Mernda) and Hurstbridge line services. Melbourne Transport Enterprises successfully bid to take over the Hillside Trains services from 29 August 1999 beating competition from GB Railways and National Express. As a partner of the consortium, Alstom would supply and deliver new trains, later known as X'Trapolis 100, to the Hillside Trains network. Alstom would also maintain the existing train fleet. Connex would be in charge of train operations, with Hillside Trains rebranded as Connex Melbourne in July 2000.

In December 2002, National Express withdrew from its operations in Victoria, and the State Government took control of the M>Train franchise. Early in 2003, the government began negotiations with Connex to assume responsibility for all Melbourne's metropolitan train network. An agreement was reached in February 2004 that awarded Connex the exclusive right to operate the entire metropolitan train network from 18 April 2004.

In August 2007, Connex's contract was extended until 29 November 2009. Veolia Transport was short listed to bid for the new franchise but lost to Metro Trains Melbourne and ceased operations on 29 November 2009.

As at August 2009, Connex Melbourne operated 15 train lines, 331 trains, 12,909 weekly services, and carried about 720,000 passengers each weekday. In 2008/09, 214 million passenger trips were made.

2009 heatwave issues

During January 2009, Melbourne experienced several days of extreme heat with temperatures in excess of 43 °C – the hottest heatwave since records were kept from the mid-1880s – with a maximum temperature reached of 45.1 °C (113.2 °F) in the Melbourne central business district. Prior to this, the ambient temperature was between 38 and 40 °C (100 and 104 °F). Connex was unable to guarantee services across the network. This was highly controversial as, in previous years, 'heatwaves' did not cause train cancellations. The heat-distortion of tracks has been attributed to the lack of expansion joints within newly replaced rail. Figures based on Connex media releases for the same period show the numbers of cancelled services exceeded one third of total services.

On 29 January 2009, over 500 services were cancelled. Next day services on eight lines were cancelled and the City Loop closed in the afternoon owing to the extreme weather (at the height of the heatwave) and knock-on effects, and the loss of power at the South Morang transmission station. By Connex's own estimates in the Melbourne media, over 750 services were cancelled out of 2,400. In response to the loss of services, the State Government made 30 January a day of free travel on trains, trams and buses.

Branding

After initially retaining the Hillside Trains name, in July 2000, the Connex Melbourne name was introduced. Following Veolia's rebranding of its transport operations from Connex to Veolia Transport on all other transport systems worldwide in late 2005 and early 2006, Connex Melbourne was one of the very few Veolia Transport operationsa to retain the Connex name. It was not until May 2008 that Connex Melbourne began to publicly acknowledge its connection with the parent company, using the "Connex: A Veolia Transport Company" phrase in publicity material and using the Veolia Transport and Connex brands together. Branding on staff uniforms, trains and station signage was not altered.

Operations

When the Public Transport Corporation fleet was split, Hillside Trains were allocated 58 three-car Hitachi and 91 three-car Comeng sets, as well as the single prototype 4-car 4D.

To replace the Hitachis, 58 three-car X'Trapolis were ordered with the first entering service in December 2002. The Comengs were refurbished between 2000 and 2003 by Alstom at Ballarat North Workshops.

When Connex Melbourne took over the M>Train franchise in April 2004, it took over all of its rolling stock including the remaining Hitachi and Comeng sets as well as the Siemens Nexas fleet. A class locomotives and MTH carriages were hired from V/Line for services on the unelectrified Stony Point line. These were replaced in April 2008 by Sprinters.

Controversies

On 23 February 2007, a computer hacker broke into the gateway used by the SMS system and sent threatening messages to over 10,000 commuters who had subscribed to the service. A Connex spokesman said that the messages were clearly a hoax and the hackers were able only to send the message and could not get access to the customer database.

Melbourne artist Van Thanh Rudd made an artwork attacking Connex's parent company Veolia Environnement's building of a light rail system in Jerusalem, including in East Jerusalem which is considered to be occupied by Israel.