More than 150 commuters at a community meeting in Altona have called for partial duplication of the Werribee line through non-residential areas to improve the “worst train service in Melbourne”.
Last week’s meeting was called by the Altona Loop Group, representing users of Seaholme, Altona and Westona stations, which dot the single track loop on the Werribee line.
Group spokeswoman Jennifer Williams asked for a show of hands from people who had changed their travel patterns since the timetable changed in 2011. The room was a sea of hands.
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The Werribee line, which splits at Newport, received extra services in 2011 with trains timetabled to run every 10-12 minutes.
However, Altona loop commuters had peak-hour trains cut to one every 22 minutes and became the only people in Melbourne who had to change trains up to three times to access the City Loop.
Altona loop passengers suffered the most bypasses when there were problems on other sections of the Werribee line or other lines across Melbourne.
Ms Williams said that residents did not want to wait 20 years for the duplication of the single Altona loop train track, which is the timeframe that Public Transport Victoria (PTV) has advised.
She said commuters could not wait two years until the Regional Rail Link was built.
“We have the dubious honour of being the most dissatisfied customers in Melbourne, having the biggest drop-off in patronage across the loop stations. If a business lost
30 per cent of its customers you’d investigate reasons for the decline.
“Many residents have given up and take the car to work.”
Melbourne University public transport expert John Stone said it was “misleading” that there could be no improvements until 2016. Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder and PTV did not attend the forum.
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury told the Weekly he would ask Mr Mulder about the possibility of track duplication.
“I’d have to see the numbers before I commit myself to any project,” he said.
As he prepared to catch the train from Altona to Hoppers Crossing after the meeting, Mr Elsbury said there was a lot of work to be done by Metro at Altona. “There have been improvements, but there is certainly a huge amount of scope for work to be done.”
