More pain for Ballarat commuters

V/Line confirmed by its ‘V/Line Ballarat Line’ Twitter page that a number of services to Melbourne have been delayed as a result of ongoing track and signal faults.

The 7.17am Wendouree to Southern Cross (60-minute delay), 7.18am (25 minutes) Ararat to Southern Cross, 7.39am Wendouree to Southern Cross (18 minutes, before coach replacement between Wendouree and Ballarat) and 10.14am Wendouree to Southern Cross (18 minutes) were all impacted.

A V/Line spokesperson confirmed heavy rain on Friday night caused the issue, but said trains had returned to normal by 12.30pm.

“Heavy rain in the Ballarat area caused track faults on the V/Line network, resulting in some Melbourne bound trains having to operate at slower speeds,” the spokesperson said.

“Crews have repaired the faults and trains have resumed normal running.”

”There are no level crossing issues impacting services on the V/Line network. V/Line regularly monitors and maintains level crossings across the network to ensure the safety of customers, staff, pedestrians and road users.”

One commuter, in a comment on a Facebook post by The Courier, said the setbacks had seen them arrive for work in Melbourne more than 20 minutes late.

“We waited for three carriages to come and left at 7.46am, which was the service after the 7.24am,” the commuter wrote.

“Didn't leave Ballarat until 8am (and) got into Melbourne, Southern Cross around 9.20am. Real convenient for those that start work at 9:00 am.”

Meanwhile, V/Line’s Ballarat services have now gone 15 months without reaching V/Line’s 92 per cent punctuality goal.

August performance results, released by Public Transport Victoria on Friday, shows services slipped to 89 per cent for the last month, down from 90.8 per cent in July. Reliability was recorded at 98.3 per cent.