FOLLOWING months of disastrous rail service in the North East that has left countless local commuters standing or without a ride at all, the Labor Government announced this week it would trial a reserved-only service on weekends for the Albury Line beginning from September 2.
It is good news to see the Government finally acknowledges there are serious issues with overcrowding on our trains, but this will not address the issue at all.
In fact, for some it will probably make it worse.
The number of passengers that need to use the trains does not change. But now instead of being first in, best dressed, it will just be first booked, best dressed.
For those that need to travel on short notice, this could be devastating.
Locals going to Melbourne for desperate health care will be booked out of luck.
The solution is simple: we need more services each day, and nothing else will solve this.
Too often I hear of passengers missing health appointments, elderly and pregnant passengers travelling hours standing up or others not being able to get home.
150,000 passengers have travelled on the Albury Line since the fare reductions were introduced, now it’s time we made sure passengers could travel comfortably.
We need a real solution.
