HAPPENING NOW: Passengers stranded on Vline from Melton
Sustainable Cities Collective
Passengers are currently stranded, and have been ffor more than two hours, on a Vline train headed inbound to Melbourne from Ballarat.
Mt Atkinson Resident Jaksha Shah posted on the Mt Atkinson Advocacy Forum facebook page: (See photos here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JUu9hraY7/?mibextid=wwXIfr
"An hour’s buffer for a 30-minute train journey — and still late.
This rainy morning’s V/Line disruption on the Melton/Ballarat corridor isn’t just another delayed train. The impact is real.
Students are stranded or late to school, sometimes waiting in cold, wet weather with no easy alternative. Women and working parents miss work commitments while juggling school, childcare and family responsibilities. Working families lose productive hours and are pushed back into cars on already congested western roads because the train simply cannot be relied upon.
And the numbers back up what commuters are experiencing. V/Line’s own punctuality target is 92%. Ballarat short-distance services achieved just 85.2% punctuality in June. This isn’t the standard Melbourne’s rapidly growing west should be expected to accept. Residents plan ahead.
They leave earlier. They allow extraordinary buffers. They use the public transport available to them. What more are residents expected to do?
Nine-car VLocity trains may increase capacity, but capacity is not frequency — and capacity is not reliability.We need stronger action. Fast-track Melton electrification. Set and publish a clear delivery timeline.Improve frequency and reliability now — not only after electrification.
And hold V/Line accountable when services consistently fall below its own punctuality target.After more than a decade of planning and another $152.7 million going into development work, Melbourne’s west needs more than another announcement.
We need delivery.The standard we walk past is the standard we accept.This should not be an acceptable standard for Melbourne’s west."
For further comment contact Jaksha Shah 0426 014 143
Contact details:
For further comment contact Jaksha Shah 0426 014 143