Mulder – Record Melbourne public transport performance continues

· 28th consecutive month of more than 90 per cent of Metro trains on time

· Overall customer satisfaction with metropolitan trains is up compared to 2010
· Napthine Government delivering better public transport

For the 28th consecutive month, more than 90 per cent of Metro’s trains were on time, Minister for Public Transport Terry Mulder announced today at Parliament station.

“Metro’s performance results for August 2014 show that 92.8 per cent of metropolitan trains were on time, with the punctuality on every train line better than the same time in 2010,” Mr Mulder said.

“The punctuality of the Frankston line, the worst performing line under Labor, was 90.7 per cent in August compared with 69.7 per cent in August 2010.

“This is further evidence that the $376 million the Victorian Coalition Government invested in rail maintenance and renewals in 2013-14 has paid off.

“When we came to office we said we needed to fix the basics to get the public transport network back on track. It is now heading in the right direction,” Mr Mulder said.

85.6 per cent of Yarra Trams’ trips were on time, close to record punctuality and 3.5 percentage points higher than in August 2010.

V/Line improved on its 12 month average of 87.7 per cent of trains on time, with 89.9 per cent on time in August, its best result for 2014.

Mr Mulder said the latest customer satisfaction monitor showed passengers using Melbourne’s public transport continued to be more satisfied than when the Coalition came to office.

“Overall customer satisfaction for metropolitan trains was 70.4 per cent for the June quarter, compared with 60.9 per cent for the same quarter in 2010, which is a big difference,” Mr Mulder said.

“Satisfaction with running of train services is now at 71.5 per cent, the highest on record.

“Satisfaction with personal security was 69.6 per cent for the June quarter compared with 60.1 per cent in the June quarter of 2010, a ringing endorsement of our policy to deploy Protective Services Officers at stations to deter crime and make them safer for everyone.”

Customer satisfaction for trams remained high at 74.4 per cent for the June quarter, up from 71.2 per cent for the June quarter of 2010.

“The punctuality and customer satisfaction results prove yet again that you can’t trust Labor to run Melbourne’s public transport system,” Mr Mulder said.

“There is still a lot more work to do. We want to see Metro consistently achieving punctuality of 95 per cent for the rail network as a whole, something that is well within reach.”

Mr Mulder said that the Napthine Government was getting on with the job of building a bigger and better metropolitan rail system to move more passengers, more often, through the Melbourne Rail Link (including an Airport Rail Link), the Cranbourne-Pakenham lines project and the Bayside Rail project.

“We are also making public transport more affordable from 1 January next year with free tram travel in the CBD and Docklands, travel in zone 1 + 2 for the price of zone 1 travel, and travel within zone 2 at the discounted fare,” Mr Mulder said.