Passengers on the Warrnambool line could save up to 10 minutes on their journey when a new timetable comes into effect later this month.
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Changes to departure and arrival times will occur at all stations along the line, including between Waurn Ponds and Melbourne.
V/Line chief executive James Pinder said journey times would decrease by up to 10 minutes due to changes to stopping patterns.
Under the new timetable, the 5.56am and 12.06pm trains from Warrnambool to Melbourne and the 7.23am train from Melbourne to Warrnambool will no longer stop at Marshall and South Geelong.
Those services will run express between Geelong and Waurn Ponds stations. As a result, the journey time between Warrnambool and Melbourne will drop to three hours and 24 minutes, assuming the trains run on time.
Most current services are timetabled to take three hours and 34 minutes.
Member for South West Coast Roma Britnell said she was pleased that the concerns of country passengers were starting to be listened to and addressed.
“I have been advocating for many months for trains to and from Warrnambool to skip stations other than the main Geelong station, so Warrnambool trains are not used as a Melbourne commuter services - which often leads to overcrowding and time delays,” she said.
“We’ve had some good results with some weekday trains now skipping stations between Geelong and Melbourne, which saves some time. These changes are a start but there’s obviously a lot more work to do to ensure a faster service to and from Melbourne.”
Recent performance figures for July revealed that 180 of the 220 Warrnambool line services that operated for the month, arrived on time.
The figures fall short of V/Line’s punctuality target of 92 per cent, which the Warrnambool line has successfully reached just 11 times in the past decade.
Mr Pinder said reasons for last month’s delays included trains stopping longer than scheduled, signal faults, bad weather and temporary speed restrictions. He said the improved journey times would come into effect on Sunday, August 26.
“With changes to the departure and arrival times of some Warrnambool line services, I would encourage passengers to plan ahead,” he said.