Commuters miss out on refunds for rail, tram delays

Despite a horror month on Melbourne’s public transport, thousands of commuters are missing out on compensation they deserve, with public transport advocates saying the system should change.

Public transport advocates say commuters have been ­dudded after Metro Trains and Yarra Trams paid just $68,000 in compensation for a horror month on the rails.

In March, both operators failed their punctuality targets so poorly they had to compensate commuters for the first time since new contracts began.

Over that time, one in 10 trains on the metropolitan network did not run on time while nearly a quarter of trams failed to arrive at stops when they were supposed to.

The operators were forced to offer the value of a single daily fare to anyone with a Myki pass valid for 28 days or more who used services for at least 10 days.

But figures obtained by the Herald Sun show just 7732 people have claimed the free fares despite tens of thousands of Victorians being impacted by disruptions.

The majority of these were for Metro customers, with Yarra Trams paying out $2041.60 in fares across 232 customers.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen says compensation should be paid automatically to Myki cards. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen said most people were not bothering to apply for compensation because it was too difficult.

“The eligibility for compensation is very narrow, as it excludes passengers using Myki Money, and only applies when the entire network falls below the threshold, even if individual lines continually suffer from disruptions,” he said.

“Elsewhere in the world, compensation is automatically paid to eligible passengers — deposited directly to their smartcard. This is possible under Myki as well.

“The compensation scheme would be a lot fairer if all regular passengers were eligible, and if compensation was paid back automatically to passengers, without them having to fill in a form.”

Prior to March, Metro had not paid any passenger compensation since February 2013 while Yarra Trams had paid compensation four times since new contracts began in November 2017.

Public Transport Victoria chief executive Jeroen Weimar said the current contracts had tough new targets designed to benefit passengers.

MORE: TRAM CRASHES ON THE RISE

STRIKES MAY HIT TRAMS

CONSTRUCTION BLITZ TO SHUT DOWN MELBOURNE TRAINS

It comes as a winter construction blitz hits services on the Cranbourne, Pakenham and Frankston lines from today, with buses replacing trains between Caulfield and Flinders St until July 14.

The Sandringham line will also be shut this weekend and next weekend, coaches will replace Traralgon and Bairnsdale train services, and Carrum station will be closed from today until early next year.

Tram services on Fitzroy St and St Kilda Rd will also be ­disrupted from July 19 to July 28.

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