Werribee line more on time

Werribee line commuters are experiencing fewer delays than they were at the beginning of this year, new figures reveal.

Public Transport Victoria’s track record report shows that in the March 2016 quarter, 89.4 per cent of peak service trains along the Werribee line arrived on time – that is, within four minutes and 59 seconds after their scheduled time.

In the June quarter, punctuality jumped to 92 per cent, and by the September quarter, it was at 93 per cent.

The figures were similar for the Werribee line’s off-peak services, with a 93.8 per cent punctuality rate for the September quarter.

Metro spokeswoman Sammie Black said a variety of mishaps had caused numerous delays on the Werribee line in the first quarter of the year.

“In March, there was an increase in delays caused by faulty trains, signalling issues, ill passengers and trespasser incidents,” Ms Black said.

“The improvement to the number of services arriving on time between March and June was due to a decrease of incidents … [and] the improvement from June to September quarter was attributed to no ill passengers, reduction in infrastructure-related cancellations (particularly during the AM peak) and number of police operations affecting train services due to unruly passengers.”

Ms Black said Metro would be rolling out more X’Trapolis trains on the Werribee line in the next 12 months, which would further help to reduce delays.