2016-09-05
Ms SPRINGLE (South Eastern Metropolitan) — I rise today to speak about trains. Quite frankly, the services on the Frankston line in my electorate are woeful. On the Frankston line commuters can pretty much expect that more than 1 in every 10 peak services will be more than 5 minutes late, because that has been the average over the last 12 months. Reliable and punctual trains are absolutely essential for the south-east's economic future and for everyone who lives along the Frankston line in particular.
The trains are now so congested that too many people find it difficult to get to work on time, making public transport a far less viable alternative than high-polluting roads. This has massive impacts on the livability of the south-east, and it is forcing people into their cars and onto gridlocked roads. Far too often trains on the Frankston line need to stop because of the signalling failures, which is no surprise given the 19th century signalling technology in use on Melbourne's train network. Fixing the signalling technology must be part of the solution, but the government has no plan to roll out modern digital high-capacity train signalling on the Frankston line.