Catastrophic Failure

Greetings citizens,

As I sit here on the 15:57 Cranbourne train from Melbourne central, given my endowment of 46% battery life on my laptop and wit running at about 85%, I bring you the inaugural situational personal account. A fantastic day it has been, nice weather, stocks going up, just finished a big presentation. Needless to say, after the incident that this entry analyses, it was still a fantastic day, because something inspirational to write about found me and I had yet another chance to analyse.

And so it begins with the loud shout of “F**k Connex” from down my carriage.

Catastrophic Failure: The divergence between Japanese and Western systems for crisis control and contingency.

“F**k Connex.” – Indeed

For a bit of background information, we in Melbourne are blessed with a beautiful city, and cursed with a pathetic public transport system. In fact, one of the very few things I actually do deride is the mortal inefficiency of the system and its chaotic disability to fulfil its purpose (my regards to the two stooges: Bracks and Bachelor).

It is now 16:35, almost three quarters of an hour after I initially boarded: the train is sitting idly between Richmond and South Yarra stations. A delay has been caused by a diesel which has broken down ahead, and there are a dozen passenger trains banked up behind it. I am abroad No.2 reflecting upon my precious time being wasted and why Western methodologies like Australia’s are blasé and deal with crises inadequately.

Now most people would be irritated and angry to a high degree because they’ll be home over an hour late and are cooped up in an increasingly humid and temperate carriage. Another group of people put up with it and label the former group as serial complainers who grouch about every little thing. I am not out to judge who is right, but this journal has a history of condemning people who have a whinge about the proverbial faux pas such as the one I am presently in. At this point, it would be correct to assume that I am bothered slightly by the situation, although with a distinction as to raison d’être.

Not that I even care about problems like this – such is life. My gripe arises not because I have to wait on a motionless train for an hour, but for the fact that such a (supposedly) technologically and procedurally advanced Western culture, Australia, has utterly failed when it comes to the efficiency and contingency of its systems. This is in stark contrast to some Eastern cultures, particularly Japan.

As amusing as I find popular aspect of Japanese culture is, I will always admire the ingrained value of efficiency that Japan’s culture possesses. In industry for example, almost every Western manufacturer has a tolerable defect rate – a percentage of substandard products which it views as allowable. The linkage to my present situation is that Connex too has tolerance for incompetence, and very generous it is. If my memory serves me correctly, it will allow 15% of trains to be late and 5% of trains to not to run at all before compensation is payable and it recognises it has breached service standards.

Take a contrast with the more enlightened Japanese – go to any electronics factory in Japan and if you ask the floor manager about defect rates, he/she will probably look at you incredulously and laugh, or he/she will not know what you’re talking about. This is because post World War II, Japan rebuilt itself stronger and more efficient, culturally, economically, structurally, and for this reason, it is now one of the most powerful economies in the world. The same is true for Germany, which enjoys a similar synonymy with brilliant efficiency.

To imbue a point of difference, many Western countries; the US and Australia especially so, who ‘won the war’ so to speak, became complacent, slacked off to a large extent and fell behind, too internally focussed on maintaining a status quo of cultural values or staying in their comfort zones. The end result is that the countries who ‘lost’ the war are international powerhouses, and those that ‘won’ bask in their own incompetency. You need only look at our taxation system, Centrelink, or, who would have guessed – Connex for resounding substantiation.

One would like to think that to win a war, an advanced level or efficiency and contingency planning aptitude would be prerequisite. However, as the lovely folk at Connex have exemplified today, it doesn’t work that way. We have an inherent fault in our value ’system’ that nonchalantly tolerates failure and defect, and says “she’ll be right mate,” which is why things go wrong in the first place. Which is why there are no watertight operational procedures in place when things do go wrong. Which is why it’s now 17:01 and the train still hasn’t moved. Which is why I’m wasting my intellectual capacity writing this. Which is why…ok I’ll stop.

I shall revisit now to the theory of how this cultural fault works. An announcement has just come over the train’s intercom that the passenger train stuck behind the diesel is attempting to couple with the said defective diesel to push it along and unblock the line. I love the irony in this. So loose the tolerance is that the Connex people trying to resolve the issue haven’t been trained to know and/or have the efficient thought process to realise that no, you cannot couple a diesel with an electric train, its notionally as futile as putting a square peg in a round hole.

Yet of course they persist, because there are no proper procedures in place to deal with the issue, so someone improvises with a ‘bright idea’ and everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Needless to say, in Japan, firstly, this train breaking down would have never occurred in the first place because maintenance procedures are zero tolerance. Trains do not break down systematically in Japan because the system is efficient. Secondly, if by bizarre quirk of fate, one did break down, the people responsible for dealing with the issue would know exactly what to do, execute the solution before you could say “Yakuza”, and resolve the issue.

So we see the clear disparity between the two ways of dealing with issues. Our way is characterised by catastrophic, systematic failure, whereas the Japanese experience mere glitches. Difference is of course, that glitches are once off, they are found and fixed the first time and they learn – same problem doesn’t tend to recur; whereas systematic failure is repetitive and problematic because we don’t learn and take preventative action the first time it occurs, and like train delays, it happens over and over again. Hence, it becomes catastrophic. This is why systems do not work, because you cannot apply method and logic to a disorderly and haphazard universe, you need an organic, aqueous model that learns and adapts to changes.

17:12 “Now approaching South Yarra, passengers for the Sandringham line, please change trains at South Yarra” how I adore the irony – the recorded voice disseminates advice for the upcoming station even as the train sits still. The driver’s distorted voice crackles to “bear with us as it will be another 5 minutes before passengers can alight at South Yarra station to change trains.” My estimate is, considering the amount of people on board, a cumulative lifetime has thus far been wasted due to blatant incompetency.

Another 5 minutes? Well it has now been ten and we have not advanced but a millimetre. A couple of understandably rowdy young men are toying with the idea of jumping out, opening the doors, but without the nerve to actually make the leap. The commonality of the anger and exasperation strike me. It is one of those strange paradoxes of human existence how people band together and commiserate with their fellow human beings when they are united against a common enemy (in this case, Connex). On one hand it is heartening that you can still get comradeship like this among commuters; a cursing youth and disgruntled businessman conversing of their infuriation. On the other, it is disturbing that the only time people ever seem to truly understand one another is when everyone is in the same boat.

Sadly 17:26 is where my journey with you comes to an end for now: I may post a continuation of the saga this evening, but for now I am going to ‘borrow’ this handy unsecured wireless network named ‘Linksys’ and upload live from the midst of chaos. 90 minutes to the moment I began, my laptop is about to go and still I sit aboard my immobilised vessel, waiting for a sign that a resolution has triumphed and I can go home. To conclude I sympathise with my fellow commuters, whom I quote:

“This is f***ing stupid, this is where all my f***ing taxes go”

“Is it illegal to murder morons?”

“Up your a**e man” (in response to the drive’s intercom announcement)

I sympathise with them because they, like I, are victims of a ‘catastrophic’ failure – The catastrophic failure of yet another system.

Finally, my necessarily insensitive conclusion; insensitive in that it contains an expletive. Although I have a strong aversion to using such terms, in this case an exception must be granted for it wields the blatant power needed to make a lucid conjecture. This overused four letter word derivative presents the absolute truth on so many levels (not just public transport), and that is, plain and simple:

The System is F…..

*

Picking up the story, it was another good quarter of an hour before the train swung into motion. At last, we pull up at South Yarra station, and are given a choice of either changing trains at South Yarra or staying abroad for “a very slow trip to Caulfield.” When the driver makes this announcement, one of the youth’s replies “yeah you’re real funny mate” and proceeds to extend his middle finger toward the surveillance camera.

Alighting the train was a sight to behold, a sea of disgruntled faces moving like a school of fish toward the replacement trains departing platform 4. Words fail me when attempting to describe how crowded it was. Two ‘replacement’ trains came in bursting with commuters, and more sardines inevitably tried to pile into each of them. I hate being a sheep so I went up to the station office to see if I could satisfy my curiosity. When I ask one of the Connex people “I know you’ve probably been getting a lot of verbal abuse today, but I have a question: do you think these problems are caused by people, bad procedures or the equipment?” She looked at me incredulously and said “It’s V/Line” (pertaining to the regional diesel operator).

This spoke volumes to me. Clearly, the Connex staff have no concept when it comes to the issues that plague their service, not their root causes: they simply wipe their hands and blame V/Line. They reach for the easy scapegoat notwithstanding the fact that the incident occurred in Connex jurisdiction, and where Connex’s procedures should have dictated how to alleviate the mess. But of course, it’s always much easier to just apportion blame rather than accept responsibility. Another textbook illustration of attribution error: where people have the tendency to wrongfully take credit when things go well and blame someone else when things go awry.

As per usual, I found an alternative solution to getting ‘sardined’ in the overflowing replacement trains. A double interchange on a near empty Mordialloc/Frankston train was just the ticket. Thanks to that small improvisation I arrived at Huntingdale at 18:10, a 35 minute trip completed an impressive 2 hours and 15 minutes later. Bravo Connex.

How’s that for a lacklustre piece? I will resume writing about more endearing topics from next post, however someone needs to crusade against rife incompetence in the public transport system. I daresay even the former USSR did a better job with their transport infrastructure services, and if that was communism, I don’t think I want to know what this is.

~ by X on October 27, 2005.