Commuters face more pain with no trains

Another prolonged period without trains is on the way for Gippsland travellers.

From next Saturday, December 1, there’ll be no train services at all until Christmas eve, Monday, December 24.

Road coaches will replace all the normal V/Line trains between Melbourne and Bairnsdale.

It will be a hectic lead-in to the Christmas break for daily commuters travelling between Gippsland and metropolitan areas for work, day travellers and visitors as well as young people that travel by train as they wind up their school year.

The little bit of good news is that travel will be free of charge during the disruption.

But Public Transport Victoria has stressed that those people needing to continue their journeys on metropolitan trains, trams and buses need to get V/Line paper tickets or metropolitan travel tokens to continue their free travel in zones one and two.

On weekdays, travellers from Warragul and Drouin will be able to catch express coach services at peak times that terminate at Parliament station.

All other services will start and finish at Southern Cross station in the city.

Weekly and monthly myki pass holders should consider the free travel period before purchasing or activating the passes and those that travel on active myki passes will be able to claim refunds for their days of free travel.

Next month’s disruptions to Gippsland trains continue a year of frequent replacements of trains with buses.

That has happened on about one-third of the days this year as work continues on upgrades to the metropolitan rail network between Pakenham and Caulfield to remove level crossings and also cater for the introduction next year of new High Capacity Metro trains.