Daniel Bowen from the Public Transport Users Association said the daily fare should also be paid to people using myki money. "It's quite limited eligibility for that compensation, you have to be a monthly or longer fare and there are quite a few people who use myki money but travel every day. But they can't claim that compensation," Mr Bowen said. To claim, passengers can enter their details on the Metro website. The money will be loaded onto their myki, which needs to have been used at least 10 days in August to be eligible. How to apply for compensation on the Metro Trains website. Credit:Metro Trains Under the contract signed in 2017, the operator can be fined up to $1.25 million per month for falling short of targets.

Mr Bowen, who added compensation should be automatically refunded, said Metro's performance was "not good enough". "Melburnians do have a right to expect reliable train services," he said. "The government and Metro need to work harder at improving punctuality. People can claim a free day of travel, but deserve reliable, punctual train services." Transport Minister Melissa Horne said the Government had signed "tough" contracts with Metro expecting them to reach their 92 per cent target. "These results aren’t good enough, they’re frustrating for passengers and Metro needs to do better," Ms Horne said.

"I’ve directed the Department of Transport to work with Metro to improve reliability - to bring their performance in line with the level passengers expect, even when unavoidable incidents occur. Transport Department head of services Jeroen Weimar agreed the results were unacceptable. But he said Metro's performance was affected by factors outside its control, such as police operations and people walking on the tracks. "There was an increase in delays caused by ill passengers and congested platforms during peak periods," the department said in a statement. On its website, Metro says it spends more than $12 million a week on maintenance and renewal work.

"There were 281 incidents related to trespassing and police operations which caused delays to services in August. These are incidents outside of Metro's control and often require trains to be stopped or to run at caution at the request of Victoria Police," Metro said. There was also an overhead equipment fault on the Frankston line and a collision on the tracks at Spotswood. Metro ran an extra 250 services in August to cater for events including White Night, AFL, and the basketball series at Marvel stadium. Passenger using a myki card at Clifton Hill station. Credit:Steve Lightfoot The operator fell just short of its target to deliver 98.5 per cent of services.

"Our performance in August didn’t meet the standards our passengers expect and deserve – and we apologise," a Metro spokesperson said. "Our passengers want a more reliable train service, and we’re working harder than ever to deliver that." David Davis, the Shadow Minister for Public Transport Metropolitan, said the Labor government was failing to run a reliable train system. "Commuters and taxpayers are paying billions of dollars for our metropolitan rail system and yet

performance is declining under Labor. Our metropolitan trains are not reliable or punctual," he said. The department also released tram and V/Line performance figures.