Passengers forced to stand for hours on regional Victoria trains as free tickets supercharge long weekend demand | Victoria
Passengers were forced to stand for hours and many were unable to board services over Easter as Victoria’s regional rail system strained under the combined weight of a long weekend, school holidays and free services.
Reports of overcrowding on V/Line services increased on Friday and Saturday as public holiday timetables reduced services, amid increased demand after the state government introduced free travel in April.
Photos provided to Guardian Australia by a commuter over the Easter weekend showed Bendigo train station packed with people waiting for the service to Southern Cross, with people standing next to train carriages. Other images circulating on social media showed similar crowd levels waiting for Bendigo services at Southern Cross on Saturday morning.
Comments posted on V/Line’s public Facebook page also claimed that morning services to Swan Hill (a four to five hour journey) and trains traveling four hours to Bairnsdale left Southern Cross with people standing in the aisles.
“The sardines can’t even breathe there,” one passenger said he told Nine News After getting off the train on Saturday.
Another said: “They predicted a lot of people would get on the train. I thought they added more.” [services] But maybe they didn’t add enough.”
The comments follow reports that regional services are already struggling to meet extra demand since Premier Jacinta Allan announced on March 29 that public transport would be free across the state to help people reduce fuel use and cope with rising costs.
An AV/Line spokesperson told Guardian Australia that extra carriages had been added to services over the long weekend and more than 300 buses were on standby across the network, including to take people to weekend events including the Bendigo Easter festival.
A Victorian government spokesman said the government and V/Line “will continue to closely monitor patronage on the network over the coming weeks.”
Regular V/Line passengers report overcrowding on some services well before the free period begins.
Southwestern Victorian newspaper reported by the Standard Overcrowding on Warrnambool serviceThis includes the need for buses to accommodate overflows since V/Line switches from using N-type carriages to VLocity trains on the route in 2024. The new trains were too long for some platforms, causing trains to operate with three cars instead of six.
Richard Riordan, MP for the state of Polwarth from the Liberal party, raised the issue of overcrowding In parliament on March 4“On every train service in western Victoria people are standing for two or three hours – unless the train breaks down or breaks down throughout the journey, which can extend the journey time by up to four or five hours,” he says.
Community advocacy group formed by the Public Transport Users Association expressed concerns about the regional public transport system struggling to keep up with demand and the shared photos people standing in corridors on the train to Warrnambool on his Facebook page on Saturday.
The government’s passenger data for the 2024-25 financial year shows the Geelong and Ballarat lines have the highest number of passengers, with more than 3.8 million people transiting through just three stations on the Geelong line alone.
