Punctuality nightmare

V/Line cancellations more than double since last poll

SOARING passenger numbers and lagging infrastructure have turned regional commutes into peak-hour nightmares as figures show standards have plummeted on V/Line services since the last state election.

From November 2014, the number of late trains across the network has soared well above the growth in services and the number of cancellations has more than doubled.

There were 15,291 regional rail services that did not run on time over the 12 months to October and another 3487 that never arrived at the station.

V/Line puts aside $300,000 in its annual budget for taxis to ferry passengers impacted by outages and in the 2016-17 financial year paid out $84,435 in additional fare compensation to commuters.

Regional rail has emerged as a key state election issue as Victorians prepare to head to the polls in a week’s time.

The parties have outlined differing plans to develop fast rail and ease Melbourne’s crippling congestion and population pressure.

Chief executive James Pin- der said there were now 20.8 million regional rail trips a year compared with seven million a decade earlier.

“V/Line’s network is different compared with five years ago, with the introduction of the Regional Rail Link in 2016 effectively transforming V/Line from a country rail operator into a commuter service,” Mr Pinder said.

“The $1.75 billion Regional Rail Revival will provide more services to the regional network and help ensure we continue to offer passengers a safe and reliable service.”

Since the end of 2016, V/Line’s monthly results have consistently failed to come close to punctuality targets, with one in every 10 trains running late on the network.

Labor has committed $340 million to add 54 new VLocity carriages and $100 million for detailed planning on fast rail that would cut trips from Melbourne to Geelong down to 35 minutes.

A Coalition government would spend $19 billion, if elected, to rebuild the state’s network and introduce 200km/h services that would reduce the GeelongMelbourne journey to 32 minutes.