V/Line extends late run

‘One-off incidents’ blamed for 22 months of commuter pain

FRUSTRATED Geelong commuters have endured a 22month run of missed V/Line punctuality targets, with the operator blaming its ongoing tardiness on “one-off incidents”.

V/Line yesterday released its figures for August, showing more than one-in-10 services on the Geelong line left the platform at least six-minutes late last month. Just 89.5 per cent were deemed to be running on time, well below the target of 92 per cent.

V/Line chief executive James Pinder said services on the line had been hit by a string of “one-off incidents”, leading to a 22nd consecutive month of missed punctuality targets.

“One of those incidents involved a vehicle damaging a boom arm at the Robinson’s Road level crossing at Deer Park on August 16, which caused a major disruption in the afternoon peak,” Mr Pinder said. “To keep services moving, we were able to divert trains through the Werribee line but the incident resulted in disruptions to more than 20 Geelong and Warrnambool line services.”

Mr Pinder said train faults, emergency services requests, animal strikes and trains stopping longer at stations also affected punctuality last month.

Mr Pinder said newly appointed V/Line performance managers would attempt to decrease the amount of time trains sat idle at stations.

“To help ensure trains are not stopping for longer than the allocated time in the timetable, we’re focusing on initiatives around active platform management and improved reporting,” he said.

While late departures were an ongoing issue on the Geelong line, V/Line exceeded its the reliability target in August, with 97 per cent of services running.

On the Warrnambool line punctuality rose from 81.8 per cent in July to 90.7 per cent of in August.

V/Line reported punctuality across the network had reached its highest level since October last year, coming in at 86.9 per cent.