Figures show just 77.8 percent of services ran on time during January – the lowest figure since July, and below the target of 92 per cent. Trains are considered punctual if they arrive within 10 minutes of the schedule. 

V/Line spokeswoman Ebony Jordan blamed ongoing issues with V/Locity rail cars, despite the fact they don’t run on the line. She said wheel wear problems with V/Locity had caused disruptions across the network. 

“While locomotive-hauled trains on the Warrnambool line have not been directly affected by the wheel wear issue, patronage on some of these trains has increased during this period,” she said. 

“The two weeks of free travel has also encouraged more people to use V/Line services.” 

Ms Jordan said with services busier than normal, trains were stopping at stations for longer than scheduled. She said train faults were also contributing to delays.  

“We recognise more needs to be done to meet the 92 per cent punctuality target and we’re working to return services to normal as quickly as possible,” she said. 

Ms Jordan denied Warrnambool trains were being used to replace V/Locity services on other lines. 

“Reliability for the month, which is the number of trains that ran, exceeded the 96 per cent target at 96.6 per cent,” she said. 

It comes as the political blame-game for the ongoing issues continued in state parliament on Tuesday.

Public Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said a committee hearing confirmed the former Coalition government had cut more than $70 million from V/Line. 

She said the committee had also heard the Andrews government had provided top-up funding. 

Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh said taxpayers were being billed $300,000 a day for replacement buses, rubbing salt in the wounds of regional commuters.