Thursday, 15 October 2009

New data presented to State Parliament today confirms regional Victoria has entered another golden era of rail, with V/Line’s Annual Report showing major increases in ticket sales and train seating.

The report also confirms V/Line train use was up 9.5 per cent to 12 million passenger trips in 2008-09 – the third consecutive year of record patronage. Coach patronage also grew 17.6 per cent to 1.12 million passenger trips.

The combined train and coach patronage growth was 10 per cent in 2008-09, or an incredible 82 per cent over the past four years.

During the past financial year, VLocity train carriage numbers increased 17.5 per cent, with 14 new carriages taking to the tracks to boost capacity on 65 services each weekday, with a total 4940 extra seats.

V/Line CEO Rob Barnett said the report showed a major shift in the way country Victorians travel, with train travel once again an integral part of the regional economy.

"As more people travel by train and coach, V/Line becomes more financially efficient and the benefit of our service to the Victorian economy more evident. The subsidy per passenger trip dropped again this year to $19.42, from $19.88 last year and $22.74 in 2006–07 – an ongoing improved return on the taxpayer’s investment," he said.

"Total income for the V/Line business was up 13 per cent to $465.2 million. This included a 15 per cent increase in farebox revenue to $68.6 million, and a 12.7 per cent increase in government subsidies to $255.6 million.

"However, expenses also rose 12 per cent to $471.6 million, with cost increases in train maintenance and coaches as we travel further," Mr Barnett said.

Mr Barnett said that while passenger numbers were strong, the drought had caused regional rail lines to be under-utilised.

"Revenue from freight access fees continues to be low as a result of the drought’s impact on harvests. In 2008–09, just $2.7 million was gained from access charges (down from $4.5 million in 2006–07)," he said.

Mr Barnett said that as V/Line was a not-for-profit business funded on a cash basis by the Department of Transport, accounting standards require a deficit to be reported as asset depreciation and other non-cash expenses were not funded. As a result, V/Line this year reported a consolidated loss before tax for the year of $6.4 million (down from $9 million last year and $23.3 million in 2006–07).

"A breaking of the drought and return to better freight traffic may improve the financial result in future years," Mr Barnett said.

The report also noted an increase in signals passed at danger (SPADs) during the year with 0.72 incidents per million kilometres travelled – up from the record low 0.14 in 2007-08. As V/Line trains travelled almost 14 million kilometres in 2008-09, this means 10 SPADs occurred (there were two incidents the previous year).

"While it’s disappointing that we were not able to maintain last year’s record low levels of incidents at signals, we still have one of the lowest incident rates in Australia,” Mr Barnett said. “None of the 10 incidents that occurred last year had the potential for train collision with most incidents involving a train passing a red signal by a few metres before back-up systems were activated."

Other highlights released in V/Line’s 2008-09 Annual Report include:

• Train punctuality on V/Line’s regional network improved for the third year in a row, despite the challenges of extreme weather and major track upgrade works. In 2008–09, regional punctuality rose to 95.2 per cent on time for all services, compared with 94.5 per cent the previous year and 93.5 per cent in 2006–07. While the target (92 per cent on time) was met in the regional area, it was not met in the metropolitan areas outside V/Line’s control.
  • Punctuality for short-distance trains was 85.5 per cent and 87.8 per cent for long-distance trains.
• Nearly 18,000 extra people caught the train to two major regional events between December and March alone, injecting up to $2.3 million into the Bendigo and Castlemaine economies. The extra people travelled to the region by train to attend the Bendigo Art Gallery’s Golden Age of Couture exhibition and the Castlemaine State Festival. A further 20,000 passenger trips were made on V/Line trains to the Australian International Airshow in March.
• V/Line also released its first environmental targets in the report, including plans to ensure at least 15 per cent of energy used at V/Line stations comes from renewable sources by June next year. By June 2011, V/Line also aims to cut waste from stations by 10 per cent and reduce water consumption at stations by five per cent.

Links

Line-by-line train patronage results for the past five years are detailed in a media release issued by the Minister for Public Transport (new window) ~ 'Regional rail smashes all-time patronage record', 8 October 2009.

Copies of V/Line’s Annual Report may be downloaded at vline.com.au/annualreport