Tuesday, 15 October 2019

 Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (13:38): I want to draw the house’s attention to our failing metropolitan public transport system and the poor punctuality performance which has been demonstrated yet again by this system in Melbourne. We know that in 2017 the government signed a new franchise agreement with Metro Trains Melbourne, but the minister has not focused on what is important to commuters, which is safety, reliability and punctuality—and the punctuality data is actually very shocking. In the last 12 months under Labor the metropolitan system has not met its punctuality target in 10 months—so in only two months of the last 12 did they meet these. In the last month, September, 10 of the 16 lines did not meet their targets. On the Frankston line just 83.2 per cent of trains were on time, which is a broad definition, but nonetheless that is a shocking performance. The Cranbourne line had 84.5 per cent, the Pakenham line had 85.3 per cent—these are shocking performances, and month after month the outcomes are bad. The Werribee line was on 86.6 per cent, and country lines are no better. We have seen V/Line’s performance deteriorate badly as well, with so many lines not getting to punctuality, in some cases for up to two years. The government cannot run a proper metropolitan system. They cannot seem to focus on actually getting outcomes for the community, and I think that it is time the minister actually did her job. She gets paid a fortune to do her work and she should do it.