‘Lift your train game, V/Line’

THE Public Transport Users Association says V/Line is continuing its “near enough is good enough” approach to punctuality after recent improvement measures included telling commuters not to board trains when late and to use all doors when boarding.

Solutions aimed at busting congestion on the Geelong line also include better management of staff and trains during afternoon peak, V/Line says.

PTUA Geelong convener Paul Westcott said the solutions offered by V/Line should happen as a matter of course.

“Passengers boarding in a logical way won’t make a whole lot of difference. It’s hard to believe that’s the major reason for such poor timekeeping,” he said.

“It would seem that there has to be a culture change; that ‘near enough is good enough’ has to go.

“There has to be more urgency from staff to try and get the system running as precisely as possible.”

V/Line’s solutions to im- prove punctuality comes after it failed its punctuality target on the Geelong line for the 22nd consecutive month in August, with about 300 trains running more than six minutes late.

September punctuality on the Geelong line during the pm peak is at 90.5 per cent — up from the 88 per cent in August.

Mr Westcott said the Geelong line timetable needed to improve to prevent trains having to wait at Geelong and Deer Park to allow other trains to pass.

“(V/Line) is running a 21st century service, which is busy and very highly patronised, and people need to take things more seriously,” he said.

V/Line chief executive James Pinder said there was more than one million extra passenger trips on the Geelong line last financial year.

“There are many reasons weekday peak hour trains on the Geelong line may be delayed and V/Line is working to address the causes that are within its control,” he said.

“The majority of delays are attributed to trains stopping longer than the time allocated in the timetable and this is where a lot of our focus is being directed to improve on-time performance.

“The Geelong line is among the top performing corridors across the V/Line network, despite being the busiest.”

Mr Pinder said delays on the Ballarat, Bendigo or Gippsland lines had a flow-on effect to the Geelong line. “Performance initiatives on other lines can also have a positive effect on Geelong services.”

Trains on the Geelong line operate every 20 minutes in the off-peak and between 10 and 15 minutes at peak times.