Overcrowding signalled

By Jade Lawton
PAKENHAM line trains are among the latest and most crowded trains on the metropolitan network, according to two new surveys.
Connex data shows that in July, services on the Pakenham line were the most likely to be late, with just 85.9 per cent running on time, compared to an average of 92.6 per cent across the rest of the metropolitan network.
Connex blamed the poor performance on ill passengers, vandalism and the introduction of a new timetable on 20 July.
And Freedom of Information documents obtained by the Liberal Party show that 13 six-carriage Cranbourne or Pakenham trains carried more than 1000 passengers in May this year, with one Pakenham-bound train departing Flinders Street at 5.21pm with 1189 passengers.
Opposition transport spokesman Terry Mulder said the problem could be even worse as the trains immediately after a cancelled service, which would carry higher numbers of passengers, were not included in the survey. “Up to 198 passengers are crammed into each carriage. With individual carriages having an average 88 seats, 110 passengers are typically standing in Minister Kosky’s sardine can.
“Minister Kosky’s load standards assume a maximum of 798 passengers in a six-carriage suburban train. Anything above this is a load breach,” he said.
But there may be hope for train travellers, with Public Transport Users Association Secretary Anthony Morton laying some of the blame with departing train operator Connex, whose contract expires this year.
“The real problem is that the system has been experiencing load breaches for a number of years now, and the planners have been too slow to react. This has allowed crowding to reach unacceptable levels of 1200 per train or more,” he said.
“On the whole we’d say that breaches of the 798 passenger standard are to be expected in a growing system.
“But we would expect planners to have a prompt and well-thought-out response to this and not let the overcrowding get out of control the way it has.”
State Government spokesman Chris Owner said new reforms to the rail system would improve the service, while the Opposition had offered no solutions.
“Mr Mulder knows that Melbourne’s trains can safely carry more than 1000 passengers and his typical alarmist scaremongering shows how lazy the Opposition is.
“Additional peak hour services will be introduced on the Pakenham and Cranbourne lines next year as the fleet of 38 new trains enters service,” he said.