PERFORMANCE data for the Swan Hill train line has confirmed what passengers already know – it’s regularly running late.
The latest data showed 81 per cent of services were on time in January, well below V/Line’s punctuality target of 92 per cent.
The punctuality figure for the line has consistently not met the target in previous months, as low as 77 per cent in December, 72 per cent in November, 70 per cent in October and 75 per cent in September.
On commuter services, punctuality is measured on time to five minutes, 59 seconds. On long-distance services, it is measured on time to 10 minutes, 59 seconds.
Reliability on the line has maintained above the target for at least 96 per cent of scheduled services to run.
V/Line’s website said “providing a reliable service is important to you”.
“This is why V/Line’s performance is measured every month and compensation is offered when we don’t meet our targets,” the website said.
“Where we don’t meet our monthly targets, we provide compensation in the form of a complimentary day return V/Line ticket or the myki equivalent, to eligible customers.
“For delays of 60 minutes or more, compensation will depend on the journey travelled for eligible customers.”
V/Line didn’t respond to requests for comment.
A frequent Swan Hill passenger, who wished to remain anonymous, said services were often running 15 to 50 minutes late due to track congestion and signal failure.
“Sometimes a service doesn’t even run so these are replaced by buses due to train failure,” the passenger said.
“This takes a lot of time getting multiple buses organised just to run a full service … people going from Southern Cross to Bendigo and then to Swan Hill, often found we had to wait for another train to leave in the next hour just to get to Bendigo.”
The traveller said late trains had an impact on people with appointments in Bendigo and Melbourne.
“A lot of the older generation don’t have reliable transportation vehicles so they often rely on public transport, which V/Line is the only service in Swan Hill that commute passengers,” he said.
“Older generations get left stranded with no explanation of why the train to Melbourne was cancelled and left waiting hours to jump on a replacement bus, appointments missed or cancelled because of this reoccurring issue.
“As everyone wants, we need more upgrades to the line and safer level crossings.”
Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh said the service was “lurching from bad to worse”.
Mr Walsh said the latest performance figures were a “damning indictment of a lack of planning, a lack of investment and a total lack of interest in regional Victoria by the government”.
“V/Line’s other principal metric is its reliability performance, which represents trains actually being available to run the advertised service.
“While this performance is better, you would hope it was, after all, the trains are sitting there and should be good to go, shouldn’t they?
“But when it comes to the punctuality factor, the performance is all over the shop and none of it comes within coo-ee of where it should be.”
Mr Walsh said he was “appalled” at the 92 per cent target.
“Why isn’t the target 100 per cent? That’s what passengers and taxpayers are paying for,” he said.
“The V/Line figures don’t specify if they are impacted because of the number of times you end up being shoved on a bus, not the train you were expecting, because one isn’t available, one has broken down, or, and this is always my favourite, because of ongoing track maintenance.”
For more about compensation, visit www.vline.com.au/about-v-line/additional-pages/compensation
