Covid anxiety on V/Line

Social distancing, cancellations top complaints

SOCIAL distancing, cancelled services and staff issues have caused commuting Victorians the most headaches on public transport this year.

The Ombudsman’s latest annual report revealed a dramatic decline in complaints, coinciding with low patronage amid ongoing Covid lockdowns.

While the number of public transport commuters fell to record lows throughout the year, the number of people complaining about issues remained at 30 per cent of prepandemic levels.

Other common problems included ticketing, land and infrastructure and overall service delivery.

More than a third of all Covid-related complaints pertained to social distancing, while 30 per cent reported issues with vehicle hygiene and 21 per cent had problems with ticketing, including refund delays and disputes.

One example in the report claimed a woman on the Geelong line was concerned after making three different complaints to V/Line about the reduction in the number of carriages.

“She told us that passengers were unable to socially distance and when she did ask another passenger to keep their distance, they refused,” the report read.

“She wanted to know why seats or areas on the train couldn’t be cordoned off to create more space between passengers.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Ombudsman Simon McKenzie.

“It’s pretty clear that people were anxious about infection on public transport,” Mr McKenzie said.

“Regulation of boarding, passenger loading, overcrowding and mask compliance by staff featured regularly in complaints,” he said.

Last year, some Geelong line passengers made calls to separate Melbourne and regional commuters into different carriages amid social-distancing concerns.

A Transport Department spokesman welcomed the annual report.

“We are proud we were able to keep the public transport network running safely and reliably during one of the most challenging and disruptive periods the Victorian community has ever faced,” he said.

“Since 2020, we’ve added hundreds of new train services, introduced new bus routes in outer suburbs and revamped our public transport timetables to better connect trains, trams and buses to get people to where they need to go.”

During the pandemic, extra public transport safety measures were added, including mandatory mask wearing, QR codes, a boosted cleaning schedule and a Ride-Space app to let people know how busy services were.