Commuters on the Ballarat line can expect to receive compensation following significant disruptions to V/Line’s services over the past few days.
The state government is in talks with the regional rail provider about compensation options – such as free tickets – for the thousands of commuters affected by delays and cancellations, Deputy Premier James Merlino announced Tuesday afternoon.
At least 13 trains will be cancelled today and replaced by buses, with “heat speed restrictions” also to be in place due to high temperatures, V/Line announced on its website.
Boom gates failed to go down in time for a V/Line train on the Dandenong line last week, while travel times for Gippsland and Traralgon commuters increased significantly.
On Monday, V/Line announced a “higher than normal wheel wear on some VLocity carriages” was identified, and required further maintenance.
“This means fewer carriages are available to operate the timetable and in some cases, train services will need to replaced with coaches,” the announcement stated.
But Mr Merlino said he expected services to improve in the next few days, and V/Line would be making an announcement soon about the method of compensation and improvement to services.
“Today should be the worst of it,” he said.
“We’ve instructed V/Line to come up with [compensation] options… and we’ve instructed them to fix this problem as soon as possible.
“I understand how frustrating and annoying this is to commuters and they’ve got every right to be frustrated and annoyed.
“This is not good enough… People accept better and deserve better.”
V/Line has been contacted for comment.
For more information about the cancellations, and live updates, visit www.vline.com.au
