public transport causing early grief for Baillieu

Franchised train operator Metro Trains, through its incompetence, is causing some early grief for the Bailleu State Government. As I've mentioned previously, to divert attention from their own poor management practices, they tried to blame the driver's union for their appalling train performance figures, and now they're taking a caning over their new timetable which starts next week read here .
A suburban train timetable is a very complex beast, and by untangling it there's bound to be "winners and losers" out of it. But they (and the Government) seem to be like rabbits in the spotlight, totally gobsmacked for a response. Take this quote from the newly elected Liberal MP for the area covering Laburnum station which is losing 10 morning peak services; ''there is a reduction [in train services at Laburnum], but … we have to look at the future and how can we improve the problems on that line if we don't deal with the fundamental problems?''. Now I know she's only new to the game, but this has to be just about the most  nonsensical response to an issue that I've ever heard. At least the Brumbles.....sorry....Brumby media machine woud've spewed out all sorts of distracting data to back up their decision. Whereas all we get here is some sort of mumbling about the future from the local MP, and a "our hands are tied" response from the Minister.
So if they're having trouble selling that, lets see what their response will be when the media get a sniff that in the new timetable travel times have been lengthened on the Caufield group lines to make them more "realistic", ie. poor punctuality figures are covered up by adding more minutes to the journey. I wonder if we'll get any more babbling about the"future" on this one?
But the Baillieu Government's troubles are just starting if my sources are correct, apparently this Monday (to coincide with the new timetable) there's going to be a train driver's sickie boycott. So there'll be plenty of media there to film angry commuters screaming obscenities at Metro and the Government. Indeed plenty of uncomfortable days ahead me thinks?