Ahh Melbourne’s public transport network – there are so many things we love about it (the free city circle tram! 24-hour services on the weekend! The new accessible G Class trams!) and so many things we don’t (an outdated Myki system! Vertigo-inducing escalators at Parliament Station! When you get dinged by an angry tram driver!).
And now we’ve got another gripe to get fired up about: the train lines with the most delays and no-shows have been named, with Craigieburn and Werribee faring the worst out of Melbourne’s 17 routes. According to data from Public Transport Victoria, one in ten trains on these two lines were five minutes late in the past year – that’s a lot of people missing their 9am morning meetings.
And it’s not much better for commuters on the Frankston, Sunbury and Belgrave lines, with these trains delayed more than eight per cent of the time. Pakenham also takes the (unwanted) crown for the most cancellations, with 2.2 per cent of trains total no-shows.
So what’s the cause of these (hugely annoying) delays? Metro Trains blames a growing number of trespassers, vandalism and graffiti for the rise in disrupted services. Overcrowding is also a huge concern as it takes longer for passengers to board and alight at stations, and some older trains still running on the network are more susceptible to breakdowns.
Metro Trains' current multi-million dollar contract includes a 92 per cent punctuality target and a 98.5 per cent reliability target – and while those benchmarks have just been hit over the past 12 months, there's still significant disparity across the entire train network.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though – only 3.2 per cent of the Glen Waverley line trains were delayed, and it also had the least cancellations on the network. Sandringham, Cranbourne and Mernda were the next best performers, with delayed rates all under six per cent.