Hansard debates

Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (19:14:40) — (13 605) My adjournment matter is directed to the Minister for Public Transport. The action I seek from the minister is that she review the current compensation arrangements that are available for Gippsland V/Line commuters. The reason I ask this is that commuters on the Gippsland line have had to continually contend with either delayed or cancelled services over a long period of time, and the impact on them, on their daily lives and on their travels is significant. I guess we are all sick of hearing stories about local constituents in our area being late for work, having to cancel medical appointments or missing connecting transport options. It is simply unacceptable that in 2017 we are talking about these types of incidents on a major regional rail network.

The reality is that the performance of V/Line trains on the Gippsland line has deteriorated to a point where commuters are absolutely fed up and frustrated. Indeed if you have a look at the V/Line Gippsland Twitter feed from just this afternoon, which I checked earlier, there are messages such as:

20:21 Traralgon–Pakenham is delayed approximately 33 minutes due to a track fault on lines shared with Metro Trains.

19:38 SCS–Traralgon is delayed 40 minutes due to a track fault causing delays on track shared with Metro trains.

18:34 SCS–Traralgon is now delayed approximately 90 minutes due to a track fault causing congestion on tracks shared with Metro Trains.

This seems to be a daily occurrence, and whilst we have been advocating for a dedicated line and an improvement to rail infrastructure, in the meantime one has to really have a look at the compensation arrangements that are available to Gippsland commuters. We know that if V/Line does not meet their performance targets within a monthly period there may be compensation available to commuters who meet the criteria, which include having a Myki pass that is valid for 28 days or more. The Myki pass must also record at least 10 days on which the pass has been touched on and off on V/Line services and have a valid Myki pass number. Also interesting is the fact that compensation may be available to V/Line customers who experience a delay of 60 minutes or more in a single journey. Unfortunately this is happening far too frequently on this line. I just wonder how well that information is being conveyed to commuters, because they do deserve something.

I also pose the question to the minister — and this is a real-case scenario — of a situation where a person has arrived late to their place of work because of the train service and had their pay docked. This person is suggesting that the government should provide compensation in this case. I ask the minister to review compensation arrangements.