Some observations from today and yesterday:

• Trains in peak hour holiday period from the city are fuller then in non-holiday period. At least yesterday and today. I have never seen a 6 carriage train so full. Before Melbourne Central there were about 3 seats. After Melbourne Central no spare seats. After Parliament no spare breathing space. After Richmond... well you get the drift. Somebody I spoke to suggested passenger volume was high due to people going to the city for shopping. After Blackburn the Belgrave train is usually close to empty.
• Timetables and electronic signs all said "express Richmond to Surray Hills and express to Box Hill" (4:42 from Flinders Street via loop). Manual announcements said "stopping all stations Camberwell to Box Hill". It was stopping all stations from Camberwell. At Surray Hills, the train behind passed us (it was Express). Not happy, Connex. Especially as the train was jammed pack full of passengers. That is at stations and on the train - the driver told us to ignore the automatic announcements just before we left Richmond station. If I had known the next train was an express, I would have caught it instead (in case it wasn't as full - even if it was full it would have been a quicker trip).
• A friend of mine who left latter then I did (about 6ish) said it took him 2 hours (Upwey) to get home due to delays (20 minutes delay before Box Hill station).