By NICOLE VALICEK
TRAIN OVERCROWDING on the Williamstown and Laverton lines is worsening amid claims the Victoria Government is “fudging” the numbers to hide the problem, according to the Victorian Greens.
Victorian Greens Leader Greg Barber has accused the Victorian Government of manipulating the numbers to hide Melbourne’s train overcrowding problem in a report released on train passenger loading.
The report was obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
“They used averages of all the trains across the sample studied. Individual trains could have over 1100 passengers, well in excess of the 798 benchmark, but the average train is found not to be overcrowded,” Mr Barber said.
“They only looked at overcrowding at city-edge stations, ignoring how far out the overcrowding extends, which leads to some people standing up as long as half an hour before they get a seat.”
According to Mr Barber the State Government released a report of train passenger loading that painted a “very rosy picture”.
“It didn’t publish the raw data, but I obtained it under Freedom of Information laws. The raw data shows that overcrowding is actually getting much worse.”
“Passengers know that their regular train is becoming more crowded. They know they are standing up more often in uncomfortable and crushed conditions.”
According to the data 15 of the 40 trains sampled and measured throughout the whole on the Werribee/Laverton/Williamstown lines were overcrowded, a 36 per cent increase.
A Public Transport Spokesperson said PTV “does not fudge or misrepresent data featured in the many patronage, performance and customer satisfaction reports it releases”.
“The purpose of PTV’s train load surveys is to find out what an average train load is on a typical day for planning purposes so that we can rebuild timetables or order more trains,” the spokesperson said.
“We remove significant train disruptions from our survey data because they don’t provide a true picture of average train loads, and it is normal practice to remove statistical outliers.”
Altona Loop Group spokesperson Jennifer Williams said there is a huge need for additional public transport in the West.
“The government should release the raw data for the community. Why is the information only available under a Freedom of Information request?” she said.
“Also, using average figures is somewhat misleading. If a train has 1100 passengers there is no question those people will be uncomfortable. It doesn’t matter how many people are on the next train.”
“There are simply not enough services in one of Melbourne’s fastest growing areas.”
PTV said it devotes considerable effort to measuring train crowding and the same methodology has been used since 2007.
“(This means) that the decrease in crowding is a true reflection of the trend in the last seven years.”
