By Luke Voogt
V/Line’s failure to prepare for major sports events has caused severe overcrowding on trains during summer, according to a local transport advocate.
Public Transport Users Association Geelong convener Paul Westcott said V/Line should have prepared in advance for crowds attending sporting events in Melbourne.
“It’s bewildering as to why they haven’t been able to predict the demand and meet it.”
The company ran trains with three carriages during sporting events, when it should have used six, he said.
“It’s been very annoying for people who are sitting in luggage racks and on the floor, going past the Geelong West depot seeing spare carriages.”
Mr Westscott acknowledged V/Line could not organise extra carriages at the “drop of a hat” but said the company should have planned ahead.
V/Line had also cancelled some services due to the company being “very tight for drivers”, Mr Westcott said.
“Just the other night two trains from Melbourne were cancelled and people had to take the bus.”
A V/Line spokesperson apologised for the cancellations, explaining they resulted from staff illnesses.
The company did its utmost to replace shifts when drivers fell ill, they said.
The spokesperson also apologised for the overcrowding, but said the company normally prepared for major sporting efforts by providing sufficient capacity or additional trains if required.
“A combination of unexpected faults and service requirements led to less carriages being available than normal on some evening and weekend services.”
V/Line blamed the fourth hottest January on record for almost 20 per cent of services arriving late on the Geelong line.
Almost eight per cent of services failed to run at all last month mainly due to hot weather, according to V/Line.
The result was worse than January 2017, when almost 17 per cent of trains were late and almost five per cent did not run at all.
V/Line chief executive officer James Pinder said trains slowed down on very hot days and the company replaced some services with coaches for all or parts of the journey.
“Safety is our number one priority so we enforce heat speed restrictions on really hot days because the steel tracks expand in the heat,” he said. “
V/Line had improved the line so trains could now travel at 130km/h when the temperature reached 36 degrees celsius, and 90km/h when the temperature hit 39 degrees, he said.
“We’re working to do everything we can to minimise disruptions to passengers during the summer months and continue to remind passengers to plan ahead and allow extra travel time.”
Mr Pinder said V/Line had just completed than $100,000 in improvement works on the line in January to deliver “a safe and reliable service for passengers.”
“The Geelong to Waurn Ponds Railway Planning Project is also progressing and will deliver the detailed planning required to complete a business case for duplicating the track from South Geelong to Waurn Ponds.”
