ABC 774: Discussing Melbourne's rail delays

Published by Alex Makin on Friday 16th of February, 2007

Amid further rail interruptions I was invited to speak with Derek Guille on the evening program on ABC 774. This morning during peak-hour there were a number of major delays, with signalling faults affecting Ringwood, Lilydale and Belgrave trains as well as point failures near Caulfield which affected Dandenong, Pakenham, Cranbourne and Frankston trains. This was further compounded by delays in the evening peak caused by the hot weather, where the refurbished Comeng trains cannot operate in temperatures above 35 degrees.

The State Government must step in to ensure proper maintenance of Melbourne’s rail infrastructure amid further buck-passing between Connex, the State Government and MainCo, the company charged with rail maintenance. Likewise Melbourne’s Comeng trains need as part of their maintenance schedule the ability to operate in temperatures greater than 35 degrees, it is unacceptable to simply expect Melbourne’s public transport to simply fall apart under such weather conditions.