DIGITALLY ALTERED IMAGE: Speed blurred Metro Train The practice, heavily criticised by the Public Transport Ombudsman and the Public Transport Users Association, has been employed by Metro since March 2012 as a means of sticking to the timetable. Station skipping has helped steer the rail operator through its best ever period of running its trains on time. Since it started running trains express through stations, Metro has never missed targets set for it under contracts signed with a former Labor state government in 2009. These contracts expire in two years.

The practice has infuriated passengers, and created doubt over former Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder's claims to have greatly improved punctuality on Melbourne's rail network Labor in opposition promised to stamp out the practice and look at introducing penalties for operators if trains skip stations without notifying commuters. A spokesman for Ms Allan said on Tuesday that the government was awaiting "detailed advice from Public Transport Victoria as to the most effective way to reduce station skipping". "Ultimately, we want trains stopping where they should stop, so the public can plan their journey with confidence," he said. Metro Trains chief executive officer Andrew Lezala has called for greater fines for vandalism on public transport after the train operator was criticised over station skipping.

Mr Lezala told radio station 3AW that the operator used the tactic to avoid major disruptions across the network. Metro used the tactic when it was struck by storms, trespassing, vandalism, copper theft, police intervention, suicides and "asset failures" he said. "We have an issue on the network with trespass and vandalism," Mr Lezala said. "I am going to be calling for stiffer penalties for people who abuse the network, just as would happen at Tullamarine airport. We need to get tough on people who are messing with our network," he said. Train vandalism penalties were in the "hundreds of dollars" he said. "If you go on the MCG during a game its $6800, isn't it?" Mr Lezala said.

Metro Trains ran 2400 services a day and less than 15 services a day skipped stations, he said. Mr Lezala said this represented less than 0.3 per cent of services. He denied Metro Trains skipped stations to avoid state government penalties for failing to deliver services, saying Metro's figures showed it was within its target which required it to deliver 98 per cent of its services. "We could cancel that 0.3 per cent of services and not be affected financially but that would not be a good outcome for our customers. It is never good to alter a service pattern but it is far better than cancelling the service altogether. This is not about money," he said. Mr Lezala said services travelling against the peak were sacrificed to allow trains carrying more passengers to run on time. He gave an example of morning peak trains coming from the Dandenong rail corridor, which held 10,000 passengers citybound and 200 to 300 outbound. "I apologise to those customers because I know it is terribly frustrating and irritating, but we have to look after the masses in the peak direction and that's why we do it," Mr Lezala .

Mr Lezala said Metro Trains was working with the Public Transport Victoria to have "alternative strategies" including changing infrastructure and having more trains and drivers on stand by. Ms Allan's spokesman added the Napthine government had "built their punctuality figures off the back of station skipping and timetable manipulation". But Opposition public transport spokesman David Hodgett told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday that Labor was acting like it was still in opposition. "Rather than whingeing and complaining and pointing the finger," Mr Hodgett said, Labor needed to say what they would do about station skipping. "They are now the government," Mr Hodgett said, calling on Daniel Andrews to "take action rather than whingeing about it".

Metro uses station skipping to "recover" the timetable from a major disruption, or to avoid a knock-on effect that will lead to bigger delays. The operator said that it tried to minimise the affect on passengers, and a spokeswoman said Metro resorted to the practice "as infrequently as possible". "We understand this approach inconveniences some of our customers, but our aim is to ensure the majority get to their destination on time, while delaying the smallest number of customers possible," spokeswoman Larisa Tait said. Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Luba Grigorovitch said that, when Metro instructed train drivers to skip stations, they put both drivers and station staff are risk of abuse from angry passengers. "Station staff and [ticket inspectors] already work in what can be a very hostile environment and these type of measures only adds pressure," she said.

Ms Grigorovitch said it was "inexcusable" for Metro to "fudge the figures" by diverting trains to meet their punctuality targets. "When passengers board a train direct to the City Loop, that train should go through the City Loop, not leave passengers stranded at Flinders Street." With Deborah Gough