[Melbourne, VIC] Melbourne's train system name changes from "Connex" to "Metro"

[Aussie_Rail]

Found at: Heraldsun.com.au

Melbourne's train system name changes from "Connex" to "Metro"

Ashley Gardiner - September 01, 2009 11:09am

A NEW word will soon be on the lips of rail commuters after Melbourne's train operator decided on a fresh title.

The Connex name will disappear from Melbourne's trains in favour of the name "Metro".

The name change will come into effect on November 30.

Metro has promised to cut cancellations by 24 per cent, improve punctuality by 10 per cent and have staff at an extra 22 stations.

Trains will be considered late if they are more than four minutes and 59 seconds behind schedule, a tighter definition than the current 5:59 standard.

All trains with problem air conditioning will get an upgrade to work at temperatures up to 45 degrees, costing $100 million.

Metro will be paid an average $474 million a year to run the trains.

Meanwhile, the city's new tram operator KDR will be paid $2.8 billion over eight years after finalising its deal with the State Government last night.

Downer EDI managing director Geoff Knox said Melbourne’s tram network was one of the most significant systems in the world.

“(We) are fully committed to working with the Victorian Government to deliver a world-class transport solution for Melbourne and its strategic transport objectives for the future.”

Details were released to the Australian Stock Exchange this morning.

In a separate announcement, one of the members of the Metro Trains Melbourne group revealed it would be paid $162 million a year.

United Group will get the share for maintenance of Melbourne’s trains for eight years.

As you can see from the images, the system will be awash with new liveries and bright new colours, but unfortunately paining something yellow doesn't make it new, or in this case, blue.

But it looks good and hopefully the new operators will be able to do the best they can, with what they have got and not get blamed all the time by the Government.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

"Barry Scott" voice: "Bang and connex are gone!".

Atlast they have lost there third franchise but I wonder where they'll go next and thats if any country lets them in with a history like that with railways.

I wonder which countrys railway will suffer with connex if they win a franchise any thoughts anyone?
Regards

 

[Aussie_Rail]

Well, I believe the run a lot of bus operations around the world, so I'd suggest that they might try their luck in a country where they already operate.

Although they never operated buses in Melbourne, only in Sydney did they operate buses.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I have never travelled on a "Connex" bus company are they the same quality as there trains?

 

[Aussie_Rail]

I have never travelled on a "Connex" bus company are they the same quality as there trains?

Neither have I, only rail replacement buses for Connex trains though haha. I would hope that running buses is easier than trains. But then again it is Connex and they would probably balls that up too.

 

[starrymarkb]

Connex are indeed active in both Europe and the UK - they have bus operations in the midlands and wales. Rail ops in Holland and Germany

They now trade as Veolia and also do Waste Disposal!

 

[Electrostar]

Am I right in thinking that the Metro livery isn't that much different than the existing Connex livery? You'd have thought they'd have gone for something radically different, unless this is an interim livery until the service improves.

 

[90019]

Am I right in thinking that the Metro livery isn't that much different than the existing Connex livery? You'd have thought they'd have gone for something radically different, unless this is an interim livery until the service improves.

It's quite a bit different:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/X'TrapolisFSS.jpg

 

[Electrostar]

Australian train companies don't seem as bold with their liveries British companies but perhaps that's due the trains being made of corrigated steel.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Hasn't the Yarra Trams name been around before? I love Melbourne's trams BTW. Fantastic system for fantastic city and country.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Wasn't Melbourne's train system one of the few that didn't change to Veolia? Perhaps it was doing so badly that they daren.t taint the brand.

 

[Aussie_Rail]

The newer livery is much, much different to the existing Connex livery. It will be interesting to see how they apply this new livery to the rest of the existing fleet, particularly with the Comeng and Hitachi fleets as the bottom half sides of the trains are corrugated, so it will be interesting to see what they do there.

Train livery's here are very bland compared with UK and European trains, reason for that is unbeknown to me, but one day that might change.

The 'Yarra Trams' name is apparently owned by the Victorian State Government, so the new operator cannot change that and they have to work around a way to re-market it as new without being similar to the old one.

When the Connex name went to Veolia everywhere else, the Melbourne operations, which is their biggest was thought to be too big to change a name for that, and given that Connex was pretty much already a house hold name. Plus costs to re-name brand everything when the franchise was up for renewal in a few years probably was thought to be a waste of time and money.

Veolia do 'waste management' here too. They even tried to get into water treatment as well.

 

[Electrostar]

It's interesting that the tram operating name has to remain the same but train ops can change. In Britain, the Government owns the names to the pre-privatisation shadow franchies, such as South West Trains, Gatwick Express, ScotRail (now devolved to Scottish Government, Great Western, Network SouthCentral, Thameslink etc. But only a handful of operators still use those titles. Gatwick Express has to be used and the Scottish Government has declared that a ScotRail name and livery will be used whichever company operates the service. Anyone who operates London Overground will have to stick to TfL's name and branding.

Australia has some incredible design and architecture (just look at the new houses and cafes!) but perhaps transport, and especially State-owned transport, is a little more conservative.

I remember thinking that the QR CityRail units built in the early 90s looked so much older than the British Rail classes 465-6 and 165-6.