Beleaguered Ben Carroll must face the music on train timetable changes at PAEC
When Minister for Public Transport, Ben Carroll, faces the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s (PAEC) today he must release details of Labor’s new public transport timetable.
Minister Carroll has previously said the new timetable won’t be released until Friday 8 January.
This is despite the Department of Transport currently conducting a survey of train commuters about the proposed changes, details of which, in true Labor Orwellian fashion, are not yet available to them.
This is simply not good enough.
In the 12 months to February 2020 (Mar 2019 – Feb 2020) Metro trains FAILED to reach the acceptable punctuality standard every month – perfect 100% punctuality fail (average punctuality 90.3%)
In the 12 months to February 2020 (March 2019 – Feb 2020) Regional rail FAILED to reach the acceptable punctuality standard every month – a perfect 100% punctuality fail (average punctuality 87.4%)
If a train trip is scheduled to take 25 minutes and you can’t achieve your performance targets the answer is simple – chuck in some new services and make it a 30 minute trip in a new timetable – just don’t tell anyone they will face longer trips and certainly don’t give PAEC an opportunity to question you on what you have done.
Beleaguered Ben, we know what you are up to.
The only time train performance has been acceptable under Labor is when there were no passengers during the COVID lockdown. So, trips under your new timetable will be longer, rather than performance better.
Given the jig is up, why not release the timetable ahead of your PAEC appearance tomorrow and explain the merits, if any, of your proposed changes? If the timetable is not released ahead of PAEC, all Melbournians will know that, apart from a few extra services, their commutes will be longer than ever.
Over to you Ben.
