Well, thank God it finally has:
As the State Government seeks bidders to run the rail networks from the end of next year, it appears to have been forced by worsening congestion problems to offer more generous terms to would-be operators.
Under the new contracts, the fines that tram and train operators face for running trains and trams late, or cancelling too many, would fall dramatically.
Now Connex can provide less and less of a service and save big bucks!
Oh, Lynne Kosky, how we commuters love you.
Sure, the transport expert the Government got sacked from Melbourne University when he was just a bit too critical of them, Paul Mees, fresh from sinking the boot into their transport "expert"'s bizarre plan to put the rail network expansion money into another tunnel instead of, you know, lines out to the suburbs that need them - well, he seemed unimpressed again:
"In any normal business where you put out a tender document this vague, people would assume you were a cretin, and take you for every cent you're worth - which is exactly what is going to happen to us," said Dr Mees, a senior lecturer in transport planning at RMIT.
RMIT? Fucker went and got another job! Dammit. Anyway, that's the sort of petty entirely reasonable point-scoring you'd expect from some small-minded git who actually cares about Melbourne being a liveable city. He wants people to be able to afford to buy a house and still commute to work; he wants people not to be entirely dependent on their cars as petrol prices rise.
In other words, he's a filthy communist and the government is right not to listen to him.
Three cheers for Lynne Kosky and her marvellous reign over Melbourne's public transport system! I wonder what she'll do next to make our lives better?
