The Melbourne government is set to collect about $125,000 in compensation from the city's train operator Metro, as it again failed to meet its punctuality target for the month of April, with only 84.5 percent of trains running on time, which is just 3.5 percent shy of meeting its 88 percent goal, that would have allowed the company to write off the fine.

Metro chief executive Andrew Lezala appealed for more understanding from the public as he announced that at least a year more is required before commuters would enjoy the improvements lined up for the system.

He said that the company will simply have to shell out the required compensation fee for now and the company is also set to issue more than 5000 free travel tickets as reimbursements for the number of its late trains.

Mr Lezala reported too that though the figures were still far from satisfactory, they were marked improvements as compared to the February and March performances of 83.4 percent and 80.5 percent respectively.

He admitted that more work needs to be done, stressing that this kind of work "takes time, this is a long haul game, it's an eight year contract and we're here to transform the railway but it doesn't happen overnight."

Mr Lezala also pointed to Metro's new staff bonus scheme which he credited in improving the company's April peak hour punctuality by 15 percent last year, as the company is poised to pay about $300,000 in staff bonuses for the same month which should benefit 2000 operational staff.

He said that they are slowly getting the peaks on time and "we'll go a long way to improving the total network's performance and this incentive program is helping us do that."

However, the opposition said that the government must take the heat for the failed figures as their spokesman Terry Mulder stressed that "Metro has again failed to reach its monthly timekeeping target because the government has neglected the basic infrastructure on which Melbourne's trains run for the past decade."

On the other hand, Public Transport Users Association spokesman Daniel Bowen welcomed the improvements being introduced by Metro, asserting that "it is good that they're moving in the right direction."