Incidents of people illegally walking on railway tracks more than doubled in February, according to new train performance results released today.

More than 1,600 trains were delayed by trespassing, near miss and police incidents, including a major Victoria Police operation in the heart of the city that impacted services between Flinders Street and Southern Cross.

This is more than double the 788 incidents recorded in January.

Last month Metro saw reliability improvements on almost every line and delivered 98.6 per cent of scheduled services – while 90.3 per cent of trains ran on time.

A number of incidents outside of Metro’s control affected on-time performance for the month.

These included a suspicious package found under the train viaduct between Flinders Street and Southern Cross on Wednesday, 5 February.

At the request of Victoria Police, trains between the two stations were stopped for about 25 minutes, delaying 124 services and inconveniencing thousands of passengers.

Trespassing on the railway is incredibly dangerous and can stop trains in their tracks – causing significant and unnecessary disruption to passengers.

Incidents can also cause lasting trauma for Metro employees and their families, passengers, and members of the public who witness them.

Metro works closely with Victoria Police to crack down on illegal trespassing thanks to a network of 9,000 CCTV cameras, proactive enforcement of level crossings, and the roll out of new anti-trespasser ground panels at stations.

Metro’s new passenger behaviour campaign – Check Yourself Around Trains – focuses on preventing unsafe incidents that can injure passengers and cause avoidable delays such as people holding open train doors and rushing on platforms.

Factors impacting performance last month included:

• Trespassing, police operations and near misses delaying 1,639 services
• Weather events including heavy rain delaying 857 services
• Ill and unruly passengers delaying 350 services
• External power outages delaying 340 services

Frankston Line services were delayed due to issues connecting a new signalling system with existing equipment, following the completion of level crossing removal works at Carrum.

Metro safely and reliably carried passengers on 339 special services to the AFL State of Origin match at Marvel Stadium, the Australian Guineas at Flemington Racecourse, soccer matches and the Victorian Caravan, Camping & Touring Supershow.