TRAIN services on the $3.2 billion Regional Rail Link will not cope with booming passenger numbers when the line opens in 2016, a V/Line report reveals.
Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland said a “damning” V/Line report, obtained under freedom of information, showed the line would need more carriages from day one to meet demand in Wyndham.
“Only some of the peak-period trains will stop at Wyndham Vale and Tarneit, so commuters are going to be frustrated to see trains speed through their station without stopping,” she said.
“When a train does stop, it will already be overcrowded.”
The 2011 report stated V/Line believed “short-starter” trains — running between Wyndham Vale and the CBD — should operate in addition to normal trains, even though they would lengthen travel times for Geelong services and hamper network reliability.
The report recommends the government order 67 new carriages to provide “a seat for all commuters”, but it has only ordered an extra 40.
V/Line acting CEO Ross Pedley said the report was more than a year old and assessments were constantly changing. Premier Ted Baillieu also said the document was out of date.
“Spare me, we’ve just ordered 40 new carriages . . . and I’ll leave it to the Greens to deal with that issue,” Mr Baillieu said.
Public Transport Users Association president Tony Morton said the report exposed how the whole project had been “planned backwards”.
“It’s quite clear that even at the top level of bureaucracy they’ve been making it up as they go along.
“The whole issue is one of shifting goalposts. Even right from the start, the RRL managed to get $2 billion of funding when someone drew a line on the map and there was literally nothing about what the planned services on the map would be.”
Mr Morton said residents in Wyndham Vale and Tarneit needed certainty — “passengers are really confused”.
But with works progressing on the West Werribee to Deer Park stretch of track, Tarneit North Residents Association president Shawn Lynch said people were optimistic about the boost it would bring to the region. “It will give us the convenience of not having to drive to Hoppers to catch a train, and even worse, out to Laverton, so it’s nothing but a bonus.”
