Pulling a fast one on trains

By Peter Farago
GEELONG’S new fast-train timetable has arrived.
Well, let’s say Geelong’s enlarged timetable because there’s nothing overly swift about it.
Let’s face it: there’s only going to be one fast train each peak period and not all commuters are going to get on board that train.
But that’s the message State Government spruiked last week when four out of six Labor MPs were wheeled out with Transport Minister Peter Batchelor to welcome the final stop in an $80 million makeover of Geelong’s train services.
What started out as the regional fast rail project prior to the 1999 state election went through a seven-year metamorphosis to become 38 more scheduled train services each week between Geelong and Melbourne.
Gone was all the crowing about new, faster services which saved Geelong commuters just six minutes travel between Gordon Avenue and Spencer Street on express journeys.
It’s been an expensive journey, too.
There was a new signalling system installed following a train disaster in New South Wales and other cost overruns but name a Government project that hasn’t come in over time and over budget.
Geelong’s experience with the regional fast rail project started out as a new, quicker service until it was revealed the small section of track where drivers would be able to push the new trains to the limit would only save six minutes.
And commuters at Lara would only watch as the train sped by.
Then the story changed and commuters were told it would be a more comfortable ride in the new high-speed Vlocity trains.
Now it’s more services, more often.
During the week there are additional runs to and from Melbourne in the peak periods, while weekend timetables are vastly improved with new hourly services.
Trains were never going to be much faster between Melbourne and Geelong because most of the journey is through metropolitan areas where speed restrictions apply.
But most commuters would gladly accept extra train services than nothing at all.
However, State Government did miss out on a massive improvement to Geelong train services – electrification.
A large chunk of Geelong’s population commutes to work in central Melbourne.
It’s a similar phenomenon at other satellite towns surrounding Melbourne like Pakenham – a similar distance to the city.
Pakenham is on an electric line that’s now part of Melbourne’s metropolitan train system.
A comparison of stopping-all-stations services from Pakenham and Marshall stations shows it takes just three minutes longer for Geelong passengers to reach Southern Cross Station than people from Melbourne’s south-east.
A train leaving Pakenham at 7.11am weekdays arrives at Spencer Street one hour and 13 minutes later at 8.24am.
Passengers departing Marshall at 7.15am roll into Southern Cross at 8.31am – a one-hour-and-16-minute journey.
However, the Pakenham train makes 29 stops, passing through the city loop to take many commuters far closer to their workplace than Geelong passengers can get without changing trains.
In New South Wales and Queensland, electric train services connect the states’ second cities to the capital, allowing commuters better connections to their workplaces.
Bringing electric trains to Geelong would have been a far better investment in this city’s rail services and would provide a more competitive alternative to the thousands of cars that head up the Princes Freeway each morning.
It would have been easier sell to the public, too.