Article: Glen Waverley line suspended

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Glen Waverley line suspended

Glen Waverley line suspended
CLAY LUCAS
January 14, 2010 - 12:57PM

For the third time since Monday, all train services on the Glen Waverley line have been suspended.

Today, after overhead wires had serious problems again, Metro Trains has been forced to suspend the entire line indefinitely between Glen Waverley and Burnley.

Buses will run in place of trains until the problem is fixed.

Metro Trains spokeswoman Lanie Harris could not say this morning when trains would resume.

A power equipment fault is responsible for the line closure.

Last night the Glen Waverley line was suspended after a tram cable snapped as tram lines crossed an intersection next to Gardiner railway station.

It blocked all services between 6pm and 7.30pm.

Meanwhile, Premier John Brumby was this morning defending his Government's performance on public transport, after 247 train cancellations in Monday's extreme heat.

Last year when the train system collapsed in the heat, Mr Brumby told reporters that his Government was "building a system to cope with more extreme conditions".

This morning, on 3AW, he was asked to explain why on Monday - during 43.6 degree heat - the system had fared just as badly as last year.

"We had a couple of days in 2009 there was one day where there was 730 cancellations," he said. "There was another day where there was nearly 500 cancellations."

"I think it would be completely unfair and completely erroneous to say that 247 cancellations is the same as 474 or 730," he said.

However, figures supplied by former Melbourne train operator Connex  to an Upper House train inquiry launched by Greens MP Greg Barber last year tell a different story.

They show that the poor performance of the train system this week, during the year's first day of extreme heat, compares almost precisely to the first hot day of 2009.

On the first day of 43-degree heat in 2009, there were 240 cancellations, the Connex figures show.

These rose to 730 by a third day of 40-degree-plus heat - when the city's power supplies collapsed, causing train services to stop completely for a time.

Mr Barber said this morning that he would ask the train inquiry, which is not finished, to reconvene and request data from Metro Trains "on the cause of each and every cancellation".

"Compared to last January, we're getting the same poor performance, but with a new list of excuses," Mr Barber said.

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Glen Waverley line in focus after new disruption

Glen Waverley line in focus after new disruption
January 15, 2010

METRO Trains is investigating the Glen Waverley line after services were suspended yesterday in the third major disruption this week. Services were also halted on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

Trains were not running for more than five hours on the line, which was reopened after 5pm.

Buses replaced trains between Burnley and Glen Waverley because an overhead power line had become tangled at Glen Iris.

A statement on the Metro Trains website said there would be a full investigation.

Company chief executive Andrew Lezala said in the statement that several similar incidents had occurred over the past week. ''We have made the repairs to the Glen Waverley overhead today and trains were cleared for service by peak hour, but we need to find the root cause of the issue,'' he said.

''There have been three major disruptions on the Glen Waverley line this week, due to overhead issues, and it is possible all three are related.''

Earlier, Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky's office said that ticket inspectors who caught people using their myki card on trams and buses would be treated with ''a common-sense approach''.

The myki card is valid for travel on trains, but is not yet valid on trams or buses.

CLAY LUCAS and PETER GREGORY

[#Metro]

Maybe they should have some diesels in backup should the power cut completely.