COMMUTERS travelling between Ararat and Melbourne's Southern Cross Station experienced over a week of pain during March, with coaches replacing trains while works were carried out on the Ballarat Line Upgrade.
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Adding to that pain, performance figures released by V/Line for March indicated that punctuality dropped nearly five percentage points along the Ararat/Maryborough line.
That figure was well below V/Lines target of 92 per cent, sitting at 78.1 per cent.
However, reliability was 99.1 per cent, which exceeds V/Lines target of 96 per cent.
Ballarat man Cal Burroughs has been taking the train between Ararat and Ballarat throughout March and said it's been difficult.
"Buses have replaced trains so it's a bit easier but you still have to wait around in Ararat," he said.
"You don't have many options around here.
"There are only three or four (trains) a day."
PTV Acting CEO Alan Fedda said March was a challenging month across the network, with multiple incidents causing delays to trains and trams in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
"There were a number of issues last month that significantly impacted the performance across the network - some of these were out of the operators' control, some in their control," Mr Fedda said.
On the regional train network V/Line saw 84.4 per cent of trains running on time, and 95.2 per cent of services delivered.
"There's a lot of work going on across the regional network to upgrade train lines across the state," said Mr Fedda.
"In March, significant progress was made on the Ballarat Line Upgrade, and in April, upgrades will be carried out on the Geelong and Warrnambool lines."
Due to each operator missing performance targets in March, passengers can claim compensation.
Compensation can be claimed by all holders of myki passes that are valid for 28 days or more, and have been used on train or tram services for at least 10 days of that month.
Compensation for March will equate to the value of one daily fare or complimentary day return V/Line ticket being uploaded onto the myki.
For details on how to claim, and for detailed performance results, visit the PTV website here.
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