Squash onto a train or miss it all together. That’s the stark reality facing Melbourne commuters with more than 18,000 people being forced onto overcrowded trains each and every day according to the 2019 Department of Transport annual passenger load survey.
And it’s getting worst with the Andrews Labor Government failing to ensure services keep pace with Melbourne’s surging population.
In the last year alone, the average number of overcrowded train services per day has surged from 15 to 20.
In what can only be described as another ‘rail fail’ for the Andrews Labor Government, in five years it has only added 2,674 additional services compared to almost 7,000 additional services put in place by the former Liberal National Government (between August 2010 and August 2014).
Under the Liberal Nationals, over 7,000 more trains reached their destination, and over 9,400 more trains ran on time.
But under Daniel Andrews, the number of services that are running on time has actually fallen by over 1,000 services.
Comments attributable to Shadow Minister for Public Transport (Metropolitan), David Davis:
“Daniel Andrews admitted in 2010 that Labor “failed to keep up” with Melbourne’s growth. Nine years later and Labor is still failing to keep up.”
“Having been in government for 16 of the past 20 years, Labor has proven it can’t run a reliable metropolitan train system.”
“Commuters are suffering from unreliable services and chronic overcrowding in peak hours because of Labor’s lack of planning and investment over the last two decades.”