Track Record 42, January to March 2010 - Public Transport Victoria

For tram services, the 77 per cent passenger compensation threshold for punctuality relates to the average of
the punctuality at the second, third and fourth of the five monitoring points along the length of the route under
the new punctuality measure.
V/Line Passenger trains – long distance V/Line Passenger services are considered to be on time if they
arrive no more than ten minutes 59 seconds late, while short-distance services are considered to be on time if
they arrive no more than five minutes 59 seconds late. Early arrival at the destination is also considered to be
on-time.
Reliability
The reliability measure for metropolitan train and tram services changed on 30 November 2009.
Previously, this was a measure of the percentage of scheduled services that were cancelled and a 98 per cent
threshold applied. The reliability measure has been expanded to include short services (ie services delivered
in part but not in full) and loop bypass events, such as when a service is scheduled to travel through the City
or Westona loops but fails to do so. Although the measure has been expanded, the 98 per cent threshold has
not changed.
For trains, a short service is counted as a quarter of a cancellation and a bypass event is counted as an
eighth of a cancellation. For trams, a short service is counted as an eighth of a cancellation. This improved,
new measure of service delivery is referred to as the percentage of timetable not delivered. An increase in this
measure reflects a decline in performance.
The reliability measure for regional trains continues to be based on the percentage of scheduled services that
are not cancelled. The threshold is 96 per cent. See Table 10 for further details.
Metropolitan and regional bus services are deemed reliable if 99 per cent of all scheduled services on any
day operate and are completed.
How Operational Performance Regime payments or penalties are calculated
All timetabled train and tram services are monitored every day of the week.
Delays, cancellations and other service failures are measured to the nearest 60 seconds and ‘weighted’
according to the number of people estimated to be travelling on the train or tram. The passenger weightings
vary according to the time period, day of week and direction of travel. Delays to a heavily-loaded peak train
or tram are given a greater value than delays to a less loaded off-peak train or tram. This system provides a
measure of operational performance expressed in ‘passenger-weighted minutes’ of delay.
Passenger-weighted minutes of delay in each month are checked against performance targets set in the
partnership agreements. Performance against these targets determines whether a bonus or a penalty
applies to an operator. This bonus and penalty system is referred to as the Operational Performance
Regime (OPR). Bonuses and penalties are capped at $1 million for metropolitan trains and $500,000
for trams per calendar month.
Metropolitan bus services are not included in this performance regime. Bus operators provide performance
data for bus services (on-time running and cancellations) via monthly ‘key performance indicator’ returns.
6.3 Passenger compensation
Train and tram Partnership Agreements require operators to provide punctuality and reliability (number of
cancellations) service levels above a government-set threshold. Operators must report to passengers every
month on whether or not they have met the minimum service requirements.
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