WARRAGUL ward councillor Mikaela Power has called on the state government to improve rail services on the Traralgon line.
Above: Sprinter railcars at Drouin station.
First published in the 13 March edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen.
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At the 10 March Baw Baw council meeting, Cr Power successfully moved a general business motion called for Baw Baw to send a letter to Victorian public transport minister Jacinta Allan about:
- “our concerns regarding overcrowding during morning and afternoon peak services and to seek urgent assistance to increase the number of carriages on these trains, and
- the safety and comfort of commuters travelling on trains on the Gippsland line, where some patrons have been affected by alcohol or consuming alcohol and the impact that this has on quality of service for other passengers.”
Cr Power identified the 06:37, 07:20 and 07:36 ex-Traralgon and 16:58 ex-Melbourne services as particularly badly overcrowded, with passengers having to be repeatedly told by conductors to keep walkways clear.
In supporting the motion Cr Cook said rail was “the most efficient way of getting to Melbourne,” and “the comfort of the travelling public is very important.”
Councillors unanimously supported the motion, but Cr Balfour said there should have also been a recommendation to duplicate the track between Bunyip and Longwarry.
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He claimed some services had to “wait for an hour sometimes” because of the single track section. WBBC can say from experience the wait is nowhere near that long, but the single track section certainly is a bottleneck.
in 1956 my father died working on the line.the promise was an electric train between Wgl & melb on the hour every hour from 5am till 11pm to take 1 hour over a dual track over the bunyip river60 years later you could say he died for nothing.
I am very grateful we have a rail connection from Warragul to Melbourne thanks to dedicated workers and planners over the years. Unfortunately the vision of the past is not supported today.The lack of dual track and the separation of V-Line and Metro tracks will continue to lenghthen travel times.
Its a pity the Council don’t write to the Minister to “Advocate for improved bus services in Drouin & Warragul” as stated in the “Baw Baw Shire Council Integrated Transport Plan 2011”. The town service in Warragul is abysmal and Drouin doesn’t have one.