Comments on: Ad Nauseam: Connex again

By: Helen

Helen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:58:58 +0000

TimT, try “doing something about it (your)self” and you’ll find yourself told where to stick it, at best. At worst, you’ll find yourself beaten up.
This sort of job is meant for professional railway staff. Why can’t the Greatcoated Ones justify their miserable existence by picking up on some of these miscreants? We, the passengers, don’t have any authority. It would be nice if all the inhabitants of a carriage rose up and lynched Mr Abusing-the World-at- Large- with- Bundy- in- Hand, but it doesn’t happen outside my fantasy.

By: TimT

TimT — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:25:30 +0000

I’ve seen drinking on trains and chroming on trains, but never smoking. (A furtive last puff of a cigarette as the doors close, followed by the quick flick onto the tracks, yes.)

Partly I think it is the responsibility of people who use the trains to do something about this themselves. There’s not really that much difference between suited yuppies who leave issues of MX scattered around the trains that gradually fall beneath the seats, onto the floor, etc, and idiots who leave their bottles on the seats.

I’ve picked both up on many occasions, but have never had the guts, I’m afraid, to ask others to throw their rubbish out instead of leaving it on or under the seats.

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:25:38 +0000

I wish they’d do something about it too. There are legions of greatcoated stasi going through from time to time… all solely concerned with tickets and fare evasion. You can have violence, feet on seats, foul language and people with cans of Bundy and coke, and suddenly mysteriously there are no greatcoated Stasi to be seen.

The priorities are revenue, revenue and revenue. If they pulled their head out and look about them, they’d realise providing a real service would increase their revenue rather than the current hamfisted tactics.

By: Damien Eldridge

Damien Eldridge — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 08:04:53 +0000

Some passengers are problematic as well. I wish they would ban smoking and spitting at railway stations. Both are feral. To say nothing about the people who leave their rubbish on the trains, the people who drink alcoholoc beverages on trains, the people who smoke on trains and the people who spit on trains.

By: TimT

TimT — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:36:50 +0000

I suppose, though, you could say that the marketing genius who came up with this campaign secretly wanted it to appear stupid, out of a veiled hatred for Connex. Stranger things have happened.

By: TimT

TimT — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:35:38 +0000

Yeah, that’s right, the emphasis on public image making is awful. I was thinking of doing a post about these ads myself, they were so spectacularly stupid, but they’ve already been taken down in The Herald Sun, The Age, and just about every Melbourne blog.

Though I love the fact that in these ads, Connex is attempting to take the piss out of condescending self-improvement books and gurus in order to push… a condescending self-improvement message on their customers.

By: martin copelin

martin copelin — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:13:20 +0000

There used to be an organization called Victorian Railways. While most of its lines have been pulled up, I understand there is a fair bit left. Any real Lab or government would put the R into railways, take them back from these incompetent companies, and try to put bums more comfortably into seats and dangerous trucks off the road.

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 14:05:12 +0000

Writing from Nairobbery I am minded to say you don’t know when you are lucky, but that would be unfair. But I will observe it appears that Darlene scored a seat (or expects to). Unless you are about 3 feet tall that suggests it ain’t all bad.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:18:52 +0000

Yes you nailed it: “annoying condescending insult to the intelligence”, thank you Embi, dreamed up by a “smart alec just graduated journalism student/adviser/communications person”, thank you Darlene, thank you ball boys. It’s the constant attempts to be cute, lovable and edgy that make me want to throw up. RUN A PROPER TRANSPORT SYSTEM PEOPLE.

I’ve only done five posts in this category so far and two of them are about Connex. Remember the arty-farty “Don’t Hold Others Back” campaign which managed to waste millions of the commuters’ dollars while blaming them for everything?

By: Meself

Meself — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:58:12 +0000

Crikey you get about a bit ... obviously not monkeying about by taking the last Connex train to Clarkesville.