By Alesha Capone
Commuters on the Werribee train line were forced to deal with thousands of services which did not run as scheduled last year.
Between January and December, the Werribee line recorded the third-most unreliable train service within metropolitan Melbourne, with more than 2700 services not running as scheduled.
The Frankston line topped the list with 3246 services which did not run as scheduled.
On the Werribee line last year, there were 1188 cancelled trains, 1050 trains which ran short, 423 which bypassed stations (defined as not stopping at Westona or City Loop stations as scheduled) and 422 which skipped a station.
In comparison, during 2018, 1789 services on the Werribee line did not run as scheduled.
Opposition public transport spokesman, David Davis, said last year, many Melbourne train lines did not meet the state government’s punctuality targets.
“An unacceptable proportion of our trains do not run on time and a truly appalling number of train services, more than 2000 each month, do not even run as scheduled,” Mr Davis.
He said Premier Daniel Andrews and Public Transport Minister Melissa Horne needed to ensure train performance improved across Melbourne.
“Where is the Minister? Where is the Premier? They are clearly not waiting for a train to get them to where they need to be,” Mr Davis said.
The Department of Transport last week released its performance results for December 2019, which said Metro Trains recorded an overall punctuality score of 90.8 per cent.
In a statement, the department said many delays were caused by people illegally entering train tracks and extreme heat.
The department’s head of transport services, Jeroen Weimar said: “Metro Trains was faced with many challenges in December but we’re still looking for them to improve their performance to ensure our passengers get the reliable service they deserve.”
