Late trains in wait for ‘link’

By Cherie Donnellan
V/LINE will struggle to meet punctuality targets between Geelong and Melbourne until completion of State Government’s regional rail link project, according to a company spokeswoman.
V/Line’s Claire Steele said train lines would remain “congested” while regional and metropolitan services continued sharing lines.
The Geelong line recorded in April its best punctuality figure since November but still fell short of monthly targets. Figures for April showed 88.3 per cent of Geelong trains were within six minutes of scheduled times compared to the target of 92 per cent.
“Our punctuality targets were affected and will continue to be affected by metropolitan congestion,” Ms Steele said.
“It’s a busy network and when we’re running behind or metro is running behind schedule we slow the other one down. Slow metro services currently account for a third of our late trains.”
The $3.2 billion rail link project will include new tracks for regional services between Geelong and Melbourne.
Ms Steele said V/Line was “keen” to have the dedicated tracks.
“The rail link will be like an express lane for us.”
V/Line’s April figures for Geelong also recorded the worst reliablity in more than a year.
The company had a target of 96 per cent but achieved 93.4 per cent.
Ms Steele blamed the result on a major signal fault that caused several days of delays in April.
“Last month was the first time we’ve not met our reliability target for the Geelong run. Even though we’re part of a busy network, we always get people where they need to go.”