An escalating campaign to win the vote of long-suffering commuters will almost certainly improve train travel to Melbourne, according to the Public Transport Users Association.
Paul Westcott, a spokesman for the association, said the state government and the opposition were upping the ante and realised there were votes to be gained from the thousands who made the journey to Melbourne on train.
Opposition leader Daniel Andrews announced this morning that if his party was elected it would introduce 22 new services during non-peak periods to ensure trains arrived every 20 minutes in both directions between 6am and 7pm.
Later in the day, the State Government accused Labor of offering “a pale imitation” of its planned and already funded April 2015 timetable.
“I think they are making it up as they go along,” Mr Westcott said.
While the Coalition accused the Opposition of conning the public with its announcement, Mr Westcott said Labor had made a similar promise before it lost the last election.
“It is good to see that public transport is becoming a battleground between the two parties,” Mr Westcott said.
He said V/Line had already provided a business case to the previous Labor Government, saying that it had the trains but just needed more drivers to increase services.
“I’m pretty bewildered by the claims that Labor stole their policy, I think they are gilding the lily on that,” he said.
A re-elected Victorian Coalition Government has promised that from April 2015, it will introduce an extra weekday peak period train (in the peak direction from Geelong in the mornings and to Geelong in the afternoons) along with a new 20-minute train frequency between 9am and 3pm on weekdays.
There will be a loser in the election but commuters for once appear set to have a win.
“Having more frequent off-peak train services to Melbourne makes rail much more competitive and will help get cars off the road,” Mr Westcott said.
However, he said local Geelong bus services needed a big boost if passengers were to make full use of any new services.
“It is ironic that, if this comes about, many bus services in Geelong will run less frequently than trains to Melbourne,” he said.
“Pressure on rail station car parks is already overwhelming, and new off-peak passengers will struggle to make full use of the increased services with many car parks full by 9am.”
