Metro Trains failure: More than 1800 services were cancelled or skipped stations last month

A promised government crackdown on train cancellations and station skipping appears to be failing, with over 60 trains a day affected last month.

When Metro Trains was granted a new contract in 2017 the state government said it was cracking down on station skipping.

James Talia, 3AW State Political Reporter, said it hasn’t worked.

“In June there were more than 1800 services that, one way or another, didn’t end up where they were meant to be,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Trains are failing to meet expectations in four ways: due to cancellations, by stopping short of the end of the line, by skipping stations, or bypassing the city loop.

“The government and Metro say this is only about 1 per cent of the services that are on the timetable, but that doesn’t help you much if it’s your train,” Mr Talia said.

Metro Trains says skipping stations is the only way it can return to scheduled timetables after unavoidable delays.

The train operator is currently fined an average of about $1 million a month for failing to meet a variety of train service benchmarks.

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