Ringwood corridor Metro trains over capacity during peak hours
Getting a seat during peak hour is like “winning the lotto” according to commuters on two of Melbourne’s most notorious train lines. Now one traveller sick of people with “poor hygiene” on overcrowded services says he’s now forced to drive instead.
East
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Some Belgrave and Lilydale line commuters are choosing to drive rather than catch the train, after becoming fed up with being “packed in like sardines”.
The Department of Transport’s annual passenger load survey has revealed about one in 10 people who take the train along the eastern corridor during evening peak are crammed into overcrowded services.
The survey, which involved officials counting trains’ passengers in May, revealed three evening peak services were carrying above their capacity of 900 people, while one morning peak train was also too full.
The situation along the Ringwood corridor, which is used by trains travelling between the city and Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Belgrave, Upper Ferntree Gully and Ringwood, has improved in the morning, with two services operating over capacity in the morning in 2018, but has worsened in the evening, with just two over capacity last year.
But some train users refuse to believe the statistics, saying most peak-hour services seem to be packed.
Commuter Darlene Handley Pentland said she thought trains were over capacity for hours each morning and night.
“You have to give up your need for personal space and getting a seat is like a lotto win,” she said.
“You can forget about a car park at the (Mitcham) station after 7am.”
Mitcham’s Anthony Peluso said he wasn’t at all surprised to hear some services along the corridor were operating over capacity.
He said on “a lot of occasions” he had been at a platform and unable to get on a train because it was too full.
He said the number of trains running along the line needed to be increased, particularly with the population growth around Box Hill.
The cramped situation on trains is at the point where it is driving people away from taking the train.
Mitcham’s Joe Di Benedetto said he drove to and from work whenever he could to avoid using the train.
“(You) never get a seat and (are) always squashed into someone that has bad personal hygiene.”
Mitcham’s Henry Tiong has taken to riding the 28km, one-hour journey to work when he can to avoid the overcrowded trains.
“It’s packed enough that whenever I can, I ride into the city by bike,” he said.
“If the trains run to the timetable it is packed, it’s all standing room only.”
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But he said when trains were delayed, people couldn’t physically fit on at Mitcham station.
“It’s packed to the rafters,” he said.
“People are packed in like sardines.”
Another commuter told Leader she boarded the train at Richmond to head to Mitcham, but took a train around the city loop and back through Richmond just so she could get a seat, being unable to stand the whole journey to Heatherdale.
State Government spokesman Matt Macklin said the government was investing more than $50 billion in major transport projects to help reduce crowding on public transport and improve travel times.
“These include the Metro Tunnel which will untangle the City Loop to run more trains and create space for over half a million additional passengers every week to catch the train during peak periods,” he said.
“We’re also delivering new train, trams and buses and adding new services to get passengers where they need to go.”
The Department of Transport survey confirmed no extra train services had been added to the Ringwood corridor during morning or evening peak in the last 18 months.