Yes, Metro gets the trains more-or-less right a lot of the time (once you understand the numerous quirks, such as which trains go through the Loop, and when). But there are days when things just don't work. Last Friday was one such day. I went into the city twice, once during the day, and again for the evening. I wonder if the fact that it was a hot day had anything to do with the issues I encountered?
On the morning trip in, the train I planned to catch was cancelled and the next one was well over 5 minutes late. Hence, a total delay of over 15 minutes.
Coming home in the afternoon, the trip was fine, but the driver forgot to stop at a station up the line. At least he was very apologetic about it and it wasn't my station, so this wasn't a real problem.
Returning in the evening, the train was over 15 minutes late arriving at our station. On top of this, we were waiting on the designated platform, but just before it arrived there was the customary automatic announcement about the next train - except it casually mentioned the fact that the train was departing from platform 3 (not platform 1). Those of us who detected the anomaly made a hurried dash over the bridge, just making it. Why an earlier announcement couldn't have been made eludes me. If the change of platform was to save a minute or 2, then it was to no avail - the trip between Richmond and Flinders St involved a couple of stops, one quite lengthy.
On arrival at Flinders St, it was difficult to exit the platform, because it was full of people expecting a train due to have left nearly 10 minutes earlier - who were frustrated that the train we arrived on was going out of service instead of taking them.
After all this, we came home by tram!
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