Sections of single track on the Metro network are a direct cause of low frequencies, and cause delays to quickly cascade. In this example at Westona on the Altona Loop section of the Werribee line, a citybound train has to wait for an outbound train to arrive before it can continue on.

Similar bottlenecks are found on the Cranbourne, Belgrave, Lilydale, Hurstbridge and Upfield lines, preventing more frequent trains on those lines, and contributing to poor punctuality.

For Altona residents affected by poor train services (in part because of the single track) there’s a public meeting this Thursday night on this issue.

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The $9.80 fee for refunds of Myki credit was removed on the 1st of January this year. But it is still mentioned repeatedly on the online forms, causing many to believe it still applies.

In small print on the Myki web site does it say “Please note that the administration fee mentioned on some of the above forms no longer applies”, but many people don’t notice this.

Surely it can’t take four months to change the text on a PDF form?

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We already knew Metro was getting into the habit of having trains skip stops when running late, but now they’re taking it to new heights: a busy service to Frankston on Friday night was altered to bypass the majority of its scheduled stops.

For many passengers waiting on the platform, this was effectively a cancelled service. And we can only hope those aboard the train were told it was skipping so many stops.

While this train was scheduled to run back into the City after reaching Frankston, plenty of others at that time were going to stabling and could have run that citybound service to avoid knock-on delays. Or they could have altered the return service, which was against the peak direction and would have disadvantaged fewer passengers.

This is clearly Metro putting punctuality statistics ahead of passengers.

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New stations at South Morang, Cardinia Road and Lynbrook opened yesterday, which is great news. At Lynbrook a community event drew a big crowd, and just for the event, toilets were provided. Alas, they were taken away on the back of a truck afterwards.

South Morang is a Premium station, but the others aren’t.

With no toilets and also no staff on duty, let’s hope new train users at Cardinia Road and Lynbrook can figure out how to use the ticket machines and get to where they’re going.

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Many of the remaining problems with Myki relate to its coexistence with Metcard: old slow gates, tram and bus readers not knowing where the vehicle is (because drivers can’t enter trip details).

But some station readers have problems as well. This one had apparently decided to reboot itself at 3:12pm… and still hadn’t recovered almost two hours later at 5pm when this photo was taken.

The Transport Ticketing Authority is looking for passengers to offer their feedback — it should be obvious that they need to make sure Myki equipment works more reliably than it does at present.

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This must be a textbook example of how to confuse people: Westona station has converted to Myki, so no Metcards are for sale here.

What’s the only information on display next to the Myki vending machine? A poster all about Metcard, including a list of those Metcard fares that you can’t buy.

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From today Public Transport Victoria takes over from Metlink. With luck they do a little better at the information provided to Craigieburn line passengers during disruptions.

When disruptions happen — as one did last Monday — no information is provided for Coolaroo station users about where their replacement buses stop.

Coolaroo is also still missing from some Metro maps as well as Metlink’s iPhone app.

With three new stations opening later this month, let’s hope Public Transport Victoria are a little more on the ball updating their maps and information… as well as on critical issues such as planning and bus/train coordination.

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As publicised last week, a blitz of maintenance is happening on the rail network in coming months, meaning many weekend shutdowns and replacement bus services.

Regular commuter Terry sent us this picture: the replacement buses stop a kilometre from Officer station.

Admittedly there’s not much around Officer station – many people might find the stop on the highway more convenient. But they could at least be given the choice — often planned works start in the evening, and it could be a long walk in the dark if you left your car at the station in the morning and caught a train, but find yourself on a replacement bus on your evening trip home.

As Terry says, what is the point of train replacement bus services that don’t stop anywhere near the stations?

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On Thursday the Transport Ticketing Authority issued a media release with some good advice for new users of Myki: “touch, don’t swipe, touch, don’t wave, touch don’t rub, touch, don’t tap”.

The Myki web site, however, managed to turn this message backwards, highlighting on the home page the completely wrong advice to “swipe, not touch or wave”. Wrong!

Fortunately by Sunday morning they’d fixed it, but how many new Myki users saw the above text and got precisely the wrong message?

The TTA will need to ensure that Myki devices are more reliable and respond more consistently quickly. But it would also help if they were more clear in their messages to users.

via TheMykiUser on Twitter

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Next weekend, the Grand Prix weekend is one of the train network’s busiest. No wonder, as big public events are what public transport does best, and organisers quite rightly encourage people not to drive. Apart from efficiently moving crowds, it’s also a chance to show off the system to occasional users who (if they have a good experience) may decide to get out of their cars more regularly.

So whose idea was it to schedule infrastructure works on that weekend? It will mean closure of the Sydenham line, one of Melbourne’s busiest, resulting in buses replacing trains, including V/Line trains. For Metro passengers, they’re advising that “Journey times may be extended by up to 35 minutes” — and for V/Line, up to an extra hour.

It’s important to upgrade our railway network, but surely they could have chosen a better time?

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• See also — Herald Sun: Fury over Grand Prix line closures; Age: Rail work to hit grand prix fans