Bendigo line commuters are dismayed by revelations that the disruption of V/Line services is set to continue for weeks to come.
Hundreds of trains were again cancelled last week due to ongoing problems including an escalated rate of wear on the wheels of VLocity carriages and the failure of a train to trigger boom gates. The crisis led to the resignation of the regional train operator’s chief executive, Theo Taifalos, last Thursday.
But Woodend commuter Maxwell Winchester said V/Line’s problems obviously went much deeper.
‘‘While a lot of people are relieved to see the CEO go, the whole thing has clearly been managed in a poor way,’’ he said.
‘‘It should never have got to this point … there have to be a lot of other people involved who reported to that CEO.’’
Dr Winchester said that while a second week of free travel was ‘‘a nice gesture’’ the reality was that the free buses were being funded by taxpayers.
‘‘It’s a bit of a irony, really, because we are paying for it, too,’’ he said.
He said commuters were sick of the blame game between the two major political parties.
‘‘People who are having their entire day disrupted don’t care who’s at fault and what happened when,’’ Dr Winchester said. ‘‘We just want it fixed.’’
He reiterated the views of many Bendigo line commuters – that, until recently, V/Line’s services were first-class.
‘‘It’s really frustrating,’’ he said. ‘‘The buses still get you there, but a lot of people use that train trip as work time. You can’t do that on a bus.’’
On Thursday, Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said the continuing drama was unacceptable.
‘‘Last week, the government was told the problems had been identified and the vast majority of services would be up and running by the end of the week,” she said.
‘‘This advice from V/Line was wrong … this unacceptable situation has caused the government to lose confidence in the leadership of V/Line.
‘‘V/Line passengers are furious – and so is the government. What has happened is not good enough.’’
V/Line now expects services on the Bendigo line to steadily improve from mid-February but it will be months before full services resume.
Timetable changes scheduled for January 31 have been deferred.
The government has also ordered a review of V/Line operations.
