On full head of steam
GEELONG’S rich rail history has been celebrated as advocates raised potential issues with an imminent rollout of new train services.
Morning passengers will today be treated to food, drinks and live music to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the opening of the railway line between Geelong and Melbourne.
Work on the Geelong line had started three years before in 1854, but progress was slow due to a labour shortage caused by the gold rush, Geelong MP Christine Couzens said.
“Our railway line has a rich history and we’ve come a long way in 160 years — we’re now the busiest on the V/Line network,” Ms Couzens said.
More frequent trains will be running on the line when a new V/Line timetable starts in August.
The upgrade will introduce 74 additional services weekly, including 30 new weekend services that will increase the frequency of trains between 7am and 7pm from about 60 to 40 minutes.
But the Public Transport Users Association has warned that changes to the weekend rail timetable will create connection issues with Geelong’s bus services.
PTUA Geelong convener Paul Westcott said the initiative ran counter to recent bus service changes that tried to ensure better co-ordination in the system.
“What is threatened in Au- gust isn’t public transport integration, it’s public transport disintegration,” he said.
A 30-minute train frequency would overcome the problem because hourly buses could then meet every second train.
However, if trains do run every 40 minutes, the only solution is to introduce 40-min- ute frequencies for connecting buses as well.
“Any idea of decreasing the current hourly weekend bus frequency to 80 minutes, to connect with every second train, would be a totally unacceptable downgrading of what is already a minimal weekend bus service,” Mr Westcott said.