- Published:
- Monday 26 February 2018
Rail passengers and motorists can look forward to fewer delays and shorter waiting times, with new vehicles and road rules to get response units to incidents quicker, and restore train services faster.
Acting Premier James Merlino today joined Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan to meet with first responders and inspect vehicles that will be rolled out across the state.
The new vehicles will enable technicians to get to more incidents, more quickly – to repair faults, clear tracks and get services moving again.
Getting experts on site quicker will benefit train passengers as well as motorists, especially in incidents such as faulty boom gates at level crossings which can cause major traffic delays.
Metro and V/Line deploys incident response vehicles from depots located throughout the network with travel times to incidents varying significantly depending on traffic conditions.
In addition, the Andrews Labor Government has made legislative changes to the road safety rules to exempt Rail Incident Response Vehicles from a number of road rules if they are responding to a railway incident.
Incidents can include infrastructure faults, trespassers on the network, or trees on the tracks, with the specialist response teams now able to get to affected locations sooner, and return services quicker.
Over 100 Incident response staff will now undergo specialist training to enable them to safely operate over 90 vehicles across the network under the new road rule exemptions.
Quotes attributable to Acting Premier James Merlino
“These new cars and road rule changes will make it quicker for experts to get to incidents and restore services.”
“It’s part of our record investment in a safer, more reliable public transport system for Victoria. We’re getting it done.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan
“We know how frustrating it can be for Victorians to be stuck on trains due to incidents across the networks – these teams will be able to respond quickly to get passengers home sooner.”
“This investment is part of our delivery of the biggest pipeline of rail and road projects in Victoria’s history to keep our state moving.”