The Greens have emerged as the only political party committed to duplicating the Altona Loop to ease problems on the Werribee train line.
As Altona Greens candidate Chris de Bono prepares to launch his state election campaign at Altona station on Thursday, commuters are urging the major parties to also support duplication of the single track affecting three stations on the Werribee line – Seaholme, Altona and Westona.
Altona Loop Group spokeswoman Jennifer Williams said candidates were being asked to commit to partial duplication in non-residential areas within the next term ‘‘to stop all the unnecessary and unacceptable delays, cancellations, dumpings and bypasses that occur because Altona is a single track”.
“The loop group doesn’t want to wait 20 years for a reliable service,” Ms Williams said.
“Metro continues to use the Altona Loop as a safety valve to ensure on-time running of the Werribee line by dumping us at Newport. This is totally unacceptable.”
Mr de Bono said Altona Loop services were so bad that the line’s commuters were the most dissatisfied on the metropolitan network.
“The Greens will duplicate the Altona Loop single track as far as possible at an estimated cost of $13 million,’’ he said.
“This equates to just 0.07 per cent of what the Napthine Liberal government wants to spend on the East West toll road, a project which won’t even fix traffic congestion.”
Western Metropolitan Liberal MP Andrew Elsbury said the Coalition would announce its policies closer to November’s election.
“In August 2014, there were only 18 occasions when a bypass occurred, less than one bypass per weekday,” he said.
“This figure has plummeted from the terrible figures under the previous Labor government which saw some months record more than 100 occasions.”
Altona MP and opposition public transport spokeswoman Jill Hennessy said Labor would “have a close look at the Altona Loop, together with further public transport proposals”.
“Labor believes doubling the size of the city loop by building Melbourne Metro will ease travel times for those travelling across the city from Melbourne’s west.”
