A revised timetable will begin on December 2 this year.

John Hearsch, the president of the Rail Futures Institute highlighted the time differences between the services to The Courier.

His research has highlighted that of the 44 weekday services that run between the cities, 29 will be slower from between 1 to 10 minutes. Conversely, there will also be nine services that get slightly faster - mostly by one minute and most of them running from Ballarat to Melbourne.

The equation is complicated by a new stop at Cobblebank (noted by C in the screengrabs on this page), which opens on Monday December 2.

The calculations allowed for a stop time of two minutes to compare the previous timetable with the new one with the extra stop.

Mr Hearsch said he was surprised to see the trains slow down. "We would have expected some improvements, and certainly weren't expecting services to go backwards," he told The Courier.

He noted there was one early morning service from Melbourne that was 10 minutes faster, saying "I would have expected several other services to have sped up but that's not the case."

Ballarat rail advocate Nick Beale said: "The current changes to the timetable do not show a great improvement - however we do need to take into account that the project is unfinished and we need to allow it to be completed."

He noted too that the new timetable did not show trains running services at 40-minute intervals, which was a central promise behind the upgrade, nor are there extra services to Ballarat.

According to the Regional Rail Revival website, those changes are not expected until next year following driver training and safety testing.

Mr Beale also said it was important to note that the $518 million Ballarat Line Upgrade was about reliability and more services rather than faster trains. He said he would be monitoring the final timetable "very closely to ensure promises made in 2016 are fulfilled".

A V/Line spokesperson said the new timetable included new services for passengers in Melbourne's outer west, which they said would "help improve journeys for Ballarat locals."

A statement also said the new 18-kilometre stretch of duplicated track between Deer Park West and Melton would "boost reliability on our second busiest corridor."

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