Article: City's trains in time warp

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City's trains in time warp

City's trains in time warp
Article from: Sunday Herald Sun

Liam Houlihan and Mitchell Toy

April 26, 2009 12:00am

MELBOURNE'S busiest train lines have fewer services now than 50 years ago - when Smoke Gets In Your Eyes was at the top of the charts, pubs closed at 6pm and commuters bought tickets with shillings and pence.

A comparison of the city's 1959 and 2009 timetables showed bustling parts of the city enjoyed more trains half a century ago when there were 2.3 million fewer Melburnians.

The Public Transport Users Association said today's train services were not much faster despite more sophisticated rolling stock.

The analysis revealed:

TRIPLE the number of trains from Williamstown during morning peak in 1959 and double the services to Williamstown at evening peak.

MORE total peak services on the Frankston line in 1959.

MORE end-to-end and sweeper services on the Sandringham line.

EXACTLY the same number of Hurstbridge trains - but in 1959 more total services on the line.

The PTUA said the 50-year train freeze was a disgrace.

"Now we have a city loop and 20 per cent more passengers, which means we ought to be running even more trains," PTUA secretary Tony Morton said.

"Even having lost the St Kilda and Port Melbourne lines, we're doing no better than in the days of the Red Rattlers."

The State Government said Melbourne had a different concentration of population 50 years ago, the city had experienced population and commuter booms in recent years and there were now more country trains sharing the tracks.

"Since 1999, the Government has added more than 1300 services to the metropolitan timetable, including more than 400 in the past 12 months," a spokesman for Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said.

The comparison revealed there had been slight improvements over the five decades on some lines.

There were more Glen Waverley end-to-end evening peak services now than in 1959.

The Frankston line had more end-to-end services, but fewer total trains on the line once sweepers were included.

There were slightly more peak services in 1959 to and from Dandenong, but more overall services on the line including sweepers.

The analysis showed that over the same period service numbers had stagnated, Frankston's population had increased 650 per cent, Dandenong's 470 per cent, Hurstbridge's 331 per cent and Melbourne's had more than doubled.