Sickness on line – again

Commute misery for rail users as V/Line cancels services

COMMUTER chaos has kicked off the work week for Geelong’s V/Line users, with a cancelled morning services causing headaches yesterday.

The city’s infamous 3.10pm ghost train also vanished from the rails again in the afternoon.

And the 4.39pm South Geelong to Southern Cross was also cancelled.

On Sunday night, V/Line announced the 6.27am Waurn Ponds to Southern Cross service would not run due to staff sickness, advising passengers to instead catch a 6.44am or 6.48am service.

Frustrated commuters took to social media to voice anger that the regional rail provider could not find replacement staff with almost 10 hours’ notice.

“So you’re not able to or- ganise a back up plan in that time? Cancelling an entire service given the amount of passengers it transports is kind of a big deal,” Paul Durham said on Twitter.

“Is it not concerning that if someone calls in sick @vline_geelong are unable to provide a peak hour service. Seriously this organisation is at crisis point,” user Crankymoe tweeted.

At 7am commuters took to social media to warn others the 6.54am train at Geelong station was already at standing room only, with commuters soon sharing pictures of passengers sitting on the floor in the aisles of the train.

V/Line then announced the 8.10am service from Waurn Ponds to Southern Cross had also been cancelled.

The commuter chaos continued into the afternoon, with the 3.10pm Southern Cross to Waurn Ponds service cancelled, due to “a high number of carriages out of service for essential maintenance at the moment”, according to V/Line.

The notorious 3.10pm “ghost train” notched up eight cancellations in October, and has disappeared from service at an average of four times a month since late last year.

The 4.39pm service from South Geelong to Southern Cross was cancelled, with V/ Line asking customers to “board the 16.50 Waurn PondsSCS service with additional stops at Corio and Little River”.

In the past 12 months the 3.10pm Southern Cross to South Geelong V/Line train was cancelled or had its route altered on 48 occasions.

Last month, the Geelong Advertiser revealed at least 7300 seats had been stripped from Geelong trains in the past four months.