Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said the new timetable would ease congestion and improve reliability as the metropolitan rail network recorded its highest patronage of 189.4 million trips a year.

“More people than ever before are using Melbourne’s rail network and we are taking decisive action to deliver short, medium and long-term projects to accommodate this growth – including the delivery of 105 new weekly services from this Sunday,” Ms Kosky said.

“Around 45 new evening peak services and 10 new morning peak services each week will be introduced, which will go a long way towards ‘easing the squeeze’ for city commuters.

“To put this into perspective, the 11 new daily services across the Dandenong, Pakenham, Glen Waverley, Sydenham, Werribee and Frankston lines will have the capacity to carry at least 8800 more passengers every day. That’s the equivalent of more than three freeway lanes of traffic.

“Passengers on the Werribee, Sydenham, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines – which have seen patronage growth of about 31.9 per cent over the past two financial years – will particularly benefit from these additional services. Passengers on the Stony Point line will also benefit from the introduction of Sprinter trains and a 36 per cent increase in services from Sunday.

“This Government has added more than 1030 extra weekly services since being elected in 1999, but this is only the beginning.”

The new timetable is the first part of a three-stage plan to improve reliability and ease the squeeze for passengers on the metropolitan rail network.

Stage two of the plan will be rolled out in November 2008 with at least 95 additional weekly services, while stage three will be delivered by mid-2009 with more off-peak services to be added.

“Melbourne’s train network is complex with 165 trains running across more than 372 kilometres of track. It relies on efficient timetabling to perform at its peak,” Ms Kosky said.

“Stage two of the plan will concentrate on removing bottlenecks, where problems occur as trains cross paths, in order to reduce delays for northern and western suburbs passengers. This will allow even more services to be added from November onwards.”

For more information about the new timetable, visit www.metlinkmelbourne.com.au or call 131 638.