Signal/point failure at Box Hill station.

My 7:47 train from Upper Ferntree Gully arrived at Melbourne Central at about 9:27.

On the positive side, thank you to the driver who kept us all informed, including details such as “we are going to have to trip through the signals which means the emergency breaks will come on” and “trains are banked up at Flinders Street station where drivers normally change over and we are having problems working out how to manage the change overs with everything running out-of-sync” - this is the first time I have had a driver keep us informed at such a detailed level. If only more drivers would do this.

Of the negative side, when two trains are lined up side by side at Ringwood station, it possibly isn’t a good idea to announce one train is leaving first. This means one train leaves full, and the other train leaves almost empty…

The sign at Box Hill incorrectly said our train was the 8:28 train stopping Surrey Hills, Camberwell, and Glenferie, but it didn’t stop at these stops - it was a stopping all signals train, not a stopping all stations train.

Ironically, the train that was behind us at Ringwood went flying past us as Canterbury station (we were on the outer track in “stopping all signals” mode and it was in the middle track that presumably had just been reopened). It had to stop at East Camberwell.

At East Camberwell station, it was kind of odd, the two express trains, repeatedly stopped, side by side, with us wondering which train would get priority. Eventually my train (the first one) got priority.

Later I sent a letter to Connex, see Praise for train driver.