Melbourne Suburban Overload

[ozbob]

Commuters forced to miss trains
Liam Houlihan
Melbourne, September 26, 2006 12:00am
Article from Herald Sun
 
PASSENGERS are being left behind as the rail system chokes on record numbers of commuters.
High petrol prices in the past 12 months have helped lift trip numbers by 27,000.
At the same time just 11 extra services on four lines have been rolled out as part of the Government's "more trains more often" promise.
City-bound passengers are regularly squashed like sardines into trains at North Melbourne station.
At the transport hub used by more than two million travellers a year, some are forced to miss their train to work because they cannot fit on.
A female passenger who fainted on a train at the station was propped up by the crush. There was no room to sit or lie down.
The workday crush has commuters asking what they're paying for if they can't actually get on to their trains.
Michelle Anderson and Bilyana Josevska were among those who had to watch their city train from North Melbourne leave without them.
"This happens pretty often. It's pretty difficult if you've got an appointment," Ms Josevska said.
"I'll just try and get on the next one."
Ms Anderson said she had factored in full trains and given herself extra time to get to work.
Transport Minister Peter Batchelor's office said a planned upgrade of North Melbourne station would ease the squeeze of swelling commuter numbers.
Spokeswoman Louise Perry said while the growth was encouraging the biggest challenge to the network was its capacity to cope with record levels of demand.
"The large numbers of people moving between platforms at North Melbourne can cause delays to trains and these delays have flow-on effects to other trains waiting to join the city loop," she said.
"The upgrade will make it much easier for people to change platforms with access points at both ends of the station."
But the $38.5 million overhaul could be three years away.
Most works are expected to be finished by the end of 2008, with all construction to be completed in 2010.
Connex said the crunch was worsened by unprecedented growth on the Werribee, Sydenham and Broadmeadows lines, which funnel into North Melbourne.
V/Line passengers wanting to go through the loop also get off at North Melbourne to change trains.
Spokeswoman Kate de Clercq said another timetable revamp next year would take the areas of considerable patronage growth into consideration.
Rising passenger numbers had also delayed retirement of the elderly rattling Hitachi trains, which were meant to be scrapped at the end of the Commonwealth Games.
"Due to the unprecedented growth we have on the metropolitan train system, the future of the Hitachi trains is under review," Ms de Clercq said.
"The six Hitachi trains currently allow Connex to maintain services that might otherwise have to be cancelled."
Metlink figures show that public transport patronage grew by more than 6 per cent in the 2005-06 financial year.