Well, once again is seems Geelong rail commuters are having their peak journey times lengthened by V/Line, with the release of new timetables to take effect from April 28th.
Looking at just the two so-called “flagship” services from Geelong to Melbourne each weekday morning, each leaves the various stations in the Geelong area two minutes earlier than on the previous timetable.
The two services, previously leaving South Geelong at 6:47am and 7:09am, and arriving in Melbourne at 7:46am and 8:08am respectively on the old timetable:
Now, these same services will leave South Geelong at 6:45am and 7:07am, arriving in Melbourne at 7:46am and 8:08am respectively on the new timetable:
Leave earlier, arrive at the same time.
Two extra minutes might not sound like a lot, but since similar amounts of travel time have been added in previous timetable updates – (including this one where travel times increased by around six minutes) – Geelong commuters have been screwed again.
The “flagship” reverse peak services in the afternoon have also been extended by two minutes – leaving Melbourne at the same time, but arriving two minutes later.
Undoubtedly, this extra two minutes will be blamed on the opening of the new Williams Landing station on the Werribee line, but instead of holding a potentially clashing metropolitan service at Werribee for two extra minutes, or pushing it ahead by two minutes, the metropolitan services seem to have been left alone to the detriment of the regional services.
Many other V/Line services on the line have been similarly “adjusted”. It seems that in slotting together the new timetable, metropolitan commuters have been favoured over regional commuters.
Again.