No end to VLine’s poor performance
The crisis in VLine has hit rock bottom.
February performance data for the VLine network reveals a worsening trend of unreliable and late trains.
Every short distance service – Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, Seymour and Gippsland lines – failed to meet reliability and punctuality targets.
Four of the six long distance services failed to meet punctuality targets.
VLine’s reliability target is for at least 96 per cent of scheduled services to run. Meanwhile, 92 per cent of services must arrive on time (within six minutes for short distance services and within 11 minutes for long distance services) to meet punctuality targets.
Poor performance on the Shepparton and Seymour lines comes after recent revelations the Seymour to Craigieburn line is still reliant on ancient double block signalling installed in the 1890s.
But the Andrews Labor Government still can’t say when the broken signalling system will be fixed – two and a half years since it failed.
Short distance
| Geelong | Ballarat | Bendigo | Seymour | Gippsland | |
| Reliability | 94.7% | 92.8% | 89.4% | 63.1% | 93.0% |
| Punctuality | 88.8% | 89.9% | 84.7% | 89.3% | 73.6% |
Long distance
| Warrnambool | Ararat / Maryborough | Swan Hill & Echuca | Albury / Wodonga | Shepparton | Bairnsdale | |
| Reliability | 97.7% | 95.8% | 96.9% | 32.1% | 65.4% | 96.3% |
| Punctuality | 90.3% | 93.9% | 92.9% | 7.8% | 88.8% | 86.2% |
Comment attributable to Shadow Minister for Regional Public Transport Steph Ryan
The Andrews Labor Government is failing to fix the worsening problems in VLine.
Ripping $149 million from VLine’s budget at a time when most regional lines are constantly failing to meet punctuality targets will only make the problems worse.