Comments on: Why do V/Line and Metro Trains have their own ticket offices?

By: Liam

Liam — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 07:35:28 +0000

The V/Line website suggests most staffed stations sell tickets, and have received the same advice from the department of transport. When however, I have tried to buy from a staffed station, the Metro staff claim V/Line tickets are not in fact sold here. The only exception was Greensborough, at least a few years ago.

I now have no idea, short of travelling to southern cross, where I can buy long distance tickets. Even when booking online, I seem to need to collect the paper ticket from a booking office.

By: Cheston

Cheston — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 09:11:17 +0000

There is a V/Line coach that stops at Box Hill, the Mansfield to Melbourne office. The V/line ticket office is probably to allow people to buy / print the paper tickets for the coach service.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 08:09:51 +0000

In reply to Leon. I have bought tickets there, but they are so slow that I book online and just get them printed there instead. Example a few weeks back at Heidelberg (which also has a VLine branded window) it took about 12 minutes to get a return ticket to Maryborough

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 12:41:09 +0000

In reply to Andrew P. Basically they assigned blocks of seats to different booking offices where they expected to sell tickets, and then rebalanced as needed. Booking from a station without a block of seats they would need to contact one that did. All managed out of Central Reservations in Head Office at 67 Spencer St. Interstate trains got even more complex!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 12:32:26 +0000

In reply to Daniel. It’s not a standalone V/Line office, just inside that room is another window into the Metro booking office, and the desk behind it has the V/Line computer and ticket printer.

By: Leon

Leon — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 03:02:42 +0000

Offshoot to that question, does the Box Hill office ever sell a ticket these days?

By: Andrew P

Andrew P — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:01:39 +0000

The information about the paper tickets is fascinating. Without computers, how the hell did they know if the service was full or not?

By: Tramologist

Tramologist — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 22:18:11 +0000

The VNet computer system is so hard to operate and the error prompts make so little sense that you don’t know what you did wrong.

By: Steve Gelsi

Steve Gelsi — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 22:14:42 +0000

I think there’s signage (or advertising) at Moorabbin (maybe on the ramp down to platforms 1 & 2) saying you can buy your V/Line tickets there – maybe that’s a throwback to when you needed a paper ticket to get to Kardinia Park!

In the past I’ve bought V/Line tickets for Shepparton at Broadmeadows to avoid the Zone 1 surcharge, by starting and ending with suburban trains (coming in from Footscray, avoiding Southern Cross and only needing to cross the platform at North Melbourne to change trains). Could still travel that way now but would need to buy my paper ticket at Footscray and not use Myki, to get the fare cap and not pay double.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 22:04:07 +0000

The neighbourhood ticketing system was a complicated mess but could have been much better if it was properly implemented. Instead of tickets specific to each neighbourhood, if they’d simply implemented a zone-based system where fares are a multiple of the number of neighbourhoods or zones that the journey passes through, it could have been a forerunner to the kind of zonal fare system common in Central Europe.

As an aside, why do Victorian railway stations typically only have one entry/exit? Why didn’t Victoria adopt a proof-of-payment system rather than the gated system we have today?