Rail disruptions for ongoing works

Work on the Gippsland rail line next Saturday will mean road coaches will replace V/Line train services between Traralgon and Pakenham.

V/Line is recommending people allow an extra 50 minutes for their trips between Gippsland and Melbourne.

It continues a series of disruptions to Gippsland train schedules because of track maintenance in the region and work on level crossing removals between Dandenong and Caulfield.

Coaches replaced trains between Southern Cross and Pakenham stations last weekend due to the metropolitan level crossing works with V/Line trains connecting to Traralgon services or terminating at Pakenham.

For Gippsland services to and from Rosedale, Sale, Stratford and Bairnsdale coaches were used for the entire trip between Southern Cross station and Gippsland.

There will also be night maintenance works along the rail line between Pakenham and Warragul from tonight until Friday, November 25.

V/line says there’ll be no disruptions to train services during the period although there may be some construction noise heard by people living near where the work is being undertaken.

The latest monthly performance report for V/Line – October – reveals Gippsland people were getting the worst service of any on the regional rail network.

The percentage of scheduled services that ran dropped to 91.1 per cent, well below the target of 96 per cent and overall average across all line of 96.4 per cent.

Punctuality of services between Melbourne and Traralgon – trains that arrive within six minutes of schedule – was also well below target and the State average. It was just 82.1 per cent. Only the long distance service to Warrnambool was less punctual.

The target is 92 per cent arriving within six minutes, a schedule met 87.4 per cent of the time on average across the regional network during last month.