V/LINE says protected industrial action, infrastructure faults, and speed restrictions affected punctuality and reliability on the Bendigo line last month.

The latest performance data showed 10.6 per cent of Bendigo line trains did not run in February - the highest number of cancellations since January 2016.

Only 84.7 per cent of services on the Bendigo line were also on time last month.

A V/Line spokesperson said the planned 24-hour industrial action on February 7 accounted for almost half of the cancellations on the Bendigo line.

The spokesperson said a track fault between Gisborne and Sunbury on February 19 and 20 caused disruptions, which led to a drop in the performance results.

"February was a challenging month for performance on the Bendigo line with unrelated disruptions causing delays and cancellations," the spokesperson said. "We know this is frustrating for passengers and apologise.

"The Bendigo line is one of the busiest on the V/Line network with more than 230,000 passenger trips taken across rail and coach services in February.

"We will continue to look for ways to improve our performance in the months ahead."

The Public Transport Users Association said V/Line needed to do more for commuters on the Bendigo line.

"It's been a bad month all-round for V/Line," PTUA regional spokesperson Paul Westcott said.

"We always say that figures bump around from month to month, but we hope that this past month was an aberration."

Mr Westcott said there were a number of inherent issues on the Bendigo line.

"The chief problem is that it is a single track beyond Kyneton," he said. "So if there is a problem on the line, it snowballs because trains going both ways are affected.

"Another big problem is that trains are only running with three carriages when they probably should be running with six.

"That's for all different types of reasons but it's obviously really annoying for passengers when they have to cram onto three."

Mr Westcott said V/Line needed to improve its transparency for commuters.

"It's really vital that passengers are kept informed," he said. "Passengers are always more forgiving when they are actually told the reason for the delays or cancellations."

Earlier

ONE in ten Bendigo V/Line trains were cancelled last month, according to the latest performance results.

About 10.6 per cent of Bendigo line trains did not run in February - that is the highest number of cancellations since January 2016, when 10.9 per cent of trains did not run.

The performance data also showed only 84.7 per cent of services on the Bendigo line were on time in February.

Read more: More delays, train faults for Bendigo V/Line commuters

The last time punctuality figures were that low was June 2018, when only 80 per cent of trains were on time.

The latest performance results come as more train faults hinder commuters on the Bendigo line.

The 7.34am Kyneton to Southern Cross service on Wednesday ran at a reduced capacity because of a train fault.

The 6.56am Swan Hill to Southern Cross train also started in Bendigo at 9.22am because of the same fault.

Swan Hill commuters were told to board replacement coaches to complete their journey.

V/Line has been contacted for comment.

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