Commuters are increasingly frustrated by V/Line’s continuously inconsistent punctuality performance.
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Ballarat’s Public Transport Users Association spokesman convener Ben Lever said the number of commuters complaining about punctuality had increased in recent months.
“I've noticed a lot more complaints about punctuality, as well as overcrowding, over the past month or two,” Mr Lever said.
“It seems like nearly every day that people take to Facebook or Twitter to vent their frustrations about delays on peak services.”
V/Line’s punctuality dropped 3.4 percentage points in March to just 81.4 per cent, the lowest rate since 2014 and well below the 92 per cent target.
V/Line chief executive James Pinder blamed the poor results, which were worse than those those recorded during the 2015 Regional Rail debacle, on a boom gate incident.
The Melton incident occurred after a car was pushed in front of the train track.
However, Mr Lever said this was merely an excuse and not the reason for the poor performance.
“The incident when a car damaged a level crossing at Melton certainly caused big delays on the day it happened, but one-off incidents like those are a drop in the ocean when you look at the whole month,” Mr Lever said
“I've noticed a lot more complaints about punctuality, as well as overcrowding, over the past month or two.”
Mr Pinder condemned the car incident and trespassers in general.
He said 14 trains were help up in March by illegal activity.
Mr Lever said commuters took to Twitter or Facebook to vent their frustrations about the consistent delays and believe V/Line could improve the service.
“V/Line's own Twitter account provides a good record of the problems on the line, and it shows pretty clearly that most of their delays are caused by track faults, train faults and network congestion,” Mr Lever said.