Shadow transport minister David Davis took to social media in the lead up to the State Election to lambaste the Labor government’s ‘poor’ record with regional rail.
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“339 cancellations on the Bendigo line so far this year, with 34 cancellations in October alone. Daniel Andrews and Labor have lost control of V/Line services,” his Facebook post read.
Persuasive figures, when taken out of context.
An analysis of V/Line cancellations since 2010 – when the Liberals were last in power – shows cancellations peaked on the Bendigo line in 2012 when 440 trains, about 3.2 per cent of scheduled services, were cancelled.
The percentage of cancelled services remained relatively low under the Baillieu and then Napthine governments. In 2011, 1.9 per cent of the 13,566 scheduled services on the Bendigo line were cancelled. That figure increased to 3.2 per cent in 2012 before dropping down to 2 per cent in 2013.
Under Labor, the percentage of cancelled services has grown steadily – from 1.2 per cent in 2015 to 3.3 per cent in 2017 – but those figures must be read in the context of the increased number of services delivered.
In terms of punctuality, it’s a dead heat.
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In the three full years the Liberals were in power, from 2011-13, on average 87 per cent of Bendigo line services arrived on time.
For Labor, between 2015-17, the figures are unerringly similar – 86.9 per cent.
Both parties have made big election pledges with rail, the Liberals promising a 70-minute trip from Bendigo to Melbourne as part of a $19 billion high-speed regional rail link, which public transport minister Jacinta Allan recently described as “just a line on a map” and a “hoax”
Labor have promised to build three new stations at Goornong, Raywood and Huntly by 2023 if re-elected and put money toward exploring the duplication of track north of Kyneton.
With public transport likely to be a deciding factor for some this State Election, the statistics don’t appear to deliver a comprehensive verdict either way.
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