More train services for Melbourne.

[ozbob]

Vic, 200 extra trains to help ease squeeze
Stephen Moynihan

The Age, September 12, 2007

MELBOURNE'S frustrated train commuters will benefit from an extra 200 services a week from the end of the month.
Premier John Brumby and Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky yesterday unveiled more details of the new suburban timetable announced months ago.
Nine of the extra services will run during peak hour each weekday from September 30.
Maintenance schedules have been changed to allow more trains to run and the ageing Hitachi trains will remain.
The new timetable also coincides with the opening of the Craigieburn electrification transferring services from V/Line to Connex.
A new station will also be used at Roxburgh Park on the same line to serve Melbourne's growing northern suburbs.
Mr Brumby said Melbourne's train network had been under unprecedented pressure, with passenger numbers growing 20 per cent in the past two years.
He said the new timetable would create tens of thousands more places on the train system.
"In the morning peak, you're looking at about 150,000 passengers who come into the system, we're adding 6000 new spots in the morning peak and up to four (thousand) in the pre-peak, which is arriving at around 7am in the city," Mr Brumby said.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said there was nothing new in the announcement and it resulted in less than one new service each weekday on the city's 15 train lines.
"Melbourne will remain sardine city until this Government is willing to invest," Mr Baillieu said.