Off the rails

By Melissa Grant
DRUNKS, rowdy youths and aggressive passengers have many rail commuters feeling unsafe when travelling on the Pakenham line.
Results of a survey circulated by Bass MP Ken Smith show that personal safety and security are major concerns for commuters with 71 per cent of respondents saying there had been times when they didn’t feel safe on Pakenham trains.
Night travel, alcohol and drug affected passengers, problem youths, gangs and foul mouthed patrons were among the reasons respondents gave for feeling unsafe.
The survey also indicated that commuters are packing Pakenham line trains.
On a scale of zero to 10, with lower scores indicating higher levels of dissatisfaction, 23.5 per cent of respondents rated overcrowding, particularly during peak times, a zero.
“This is by far one of the busiest lines in the state, and yet it is seriously under-serviced,” Mr Smith said. “Every day commuters are crammed in like sardines on to poorly maintained trains that don’t run anywhere near often enough to cater for the number of people wanting to use them. Even more disturbing is that people are telling us they are afraid to use the system at all.”
However, State Government spokesman Chris Owner said statistics showed that the train network was one of the safest forms of transport for Melburnians.
“Since 2000, the overall number of crimes recorded on and around public transport has declined by 21.3 per cent,” he said. “And the recent police crime data has shown a further drop.”
Mr Owner added that safety of public transport users was a priority for the State Government.
“Every station on the metropolitan rail network now features CCTV and emergency duress buttons, while 269 car parks across 150 stations are also equipped with CCTV,” he said.
Mr Smith distributed his survey in March to 15,000 households in the northern end of his electorate, including Pakenham, Berwick, Garfield, Nar Nar Goon, Tynong, Kooweerup and Lang Lang.
Most of the 411 who responded used the Pakenham Railway Station and city stations were the most popular destination.
Some rail commuters called for the construction of a third rail line to address overcrowding and 62 per cent said they would use the Pakenham line more often if weekday peak services were increased.
Mr Owner said Pakenham commuters would benefit from the Westall Rail Upgrade project, to be complete by 2011, which would allow some train services to start and finish their journeys at Westall Station.
“This will help to ease overcrowding and reduce delays on the Pakenham line,” he said.
Copies of the Pakenham Rail Line Survey report have been sent to Shadow Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder, Inspector John Stapleton of Pakenham Police and the Cardinia Shire Council.