Since 31 March 2023 fares for V/Line services have been cut in price, with a maximum daily fare of $9.20 now applying for any journey no matter how far in Victoria you travel. There have been fears that this might lead to overcrowded trains – but this was happening before the fare cut, as my experience last month showed.
Off to Geelong
On Saturday 25 March 2023 I decided to jump on a train from Melbourne down to Geelong, and the trip was mostly uneventful.
Other than a toilet temporarily out of service.
And rock hard seating in what was a ‘short distance’ VLocity carriage.
The first oddity was the ‘No trains departing from platform 1 for the next hour’ message on the next train display at Tarneit station.
Trains to and from Geelong normally run every 40 minutes on the weekend, so that was a confusing sight.
Another odd sight as the large crowd awaiting at North Geelong station, but given their Collingwood and Bulldogs scarves, I assumed it was just a busy day for footy fans headed to the game.
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But on my arrival at Geelong I saw that wasn’t the only crowd.
The next Melbourne-bound train was about to depart, and it had standees all the way down the train.
It turns out the previous service – the 10:38 Waurn Ponds to- Southern Cross – had been cancelled.
The 10:38 Waurn Ponds – Southern Cross service will not run today
More information at https://t.co/IiZLwHhuoI pic.twitter.com/kDmNHRRuYG
— V/Line Geelong Line (@vline_geelong) March 24, 2023
And thanks to the 40 minute weekend service frequency, two services worth of passengers had to try and board a normally rather full service.
Admittedly V/Line put some effort into moving the passengers left behind – 15 minutes later a coach from usual rail replacement operator Endeavour Coach Company arrived at Geelong station.
But for my trip home, the same inadequate timetable struck again – Geelong station was full of intending passengers.
With the next service to Melbourne being an already full long-distance service from Warrnambool.
This train had standees on leaving Geelong, and at stations along the way the train had long delays as intending passengers tried to find a doorway not already filled with standing passengers.
I hate to see what these services look after the fare cuts!
Spare trains ahoy
The reason V/Line doesn’t run any more services isn’t a lack of trains – on my way past Wyndham Vale all four sidings were filled with VLocity trains awaiting their next run on Monday morning.
There were more VLocity carriages in the sidings next to the turntable at Geelong.
Three complete 6-car trains worth.
Another 6-car train parked beside the train wash.
And two older locomotive hauled trains stabled beside Geelong station.
And these trains aren’t ‘awaiting maintenance’ – the only work that gets done at these sidings is overnight refuelling and toilet decanting.
The big shed outside Southern Cross Station is the main maintenance facility.
Alongside the Alstom facility at Ballarat East.
The blame lies at the feet of the State Government.
They’ve allocated $207 million over four years to increase the frequency of weekend services in regional Victoria – but the changes won’t occur until July 2024 for the Geelong line, and July 2025 for the rest of the network.
Just a little late!
Footnote: getting pedantic
Trains might be sitting empty in sidings, but if you decided to utilise them more intensively, then maintenance requirements also increase – something that Connex struggled to do in 2009 on the Melbourne suburban network – and which V/Line ignored following the opening of Regional Rail Link in 2015, which resulted in the mass withdrawal of the VLocity train fleet with wheel wear issues.
Am I right in thinking that little maintenance is done on trains over the weekends, so the impact of change to weekend timetables is purely the additional cost of operations staff? Or am I missing something?
In a way yes, but by increasing the number of kilometres travelled trains will hit their maintenance milestones quicker, which means either more maintenance staff, or more time with trains out of service.
My sister and her daughter travelled from Geelong to Spencer Street on Monday at about noon…12.06 as I remember. They sensibly boarded the train at South Geelong and had seats but the seats soon filled up as the train progressed, and then there were standees. Many were coming to Melbourne to see an afternoon football match.
Now I did not know that they could run twelve car VLocity but she said it was. I suspect it was maybe 9 car and as a maybe monthly user, she just recognised that it was longer. The train was part express. I noticed on the timetable there was another train from Geelong maybe 10 minutes later, stopping all stations I think, and yet another beginning a Wyndham Vale.
Anyway, you were talking about the adequacy of normal services.
Six-car trains are normal on the Geelong line, three-car ones are an occasional pain, and nine-car ones only run on a handful of services to Wyndham Vale.
Metro trains are just the same whenever there’s footy on, and made worse when we have both footy on at the MCG and soccer on across the road at AAMI Park. On Easter Monday I was at the City vs Wellington match at AAMI, stupidly timed to start at 4.00 pm meaning that spectators at the City match and Geelong vs. Hawthorn at the MCG were streaming on to Richmond station to go home at the same time. The Sandringham-bound train on the Sandy line that we were on was dangerously overloaded. It beggars belief that we cannot run trains more frequently than once every 20 minutes when passenger numbers warrant it. It’s not rocket science.
Part of the problem is that we, the travelling public, put up with inadequate and poor service, year after year. And we have no recourse – politicians and transport management simply don’t care.
Even when Metro Trains run extra football trains, Richmond and Jolimont stations struggle to handle the crowds.
https://danielbowen.com/2015/05/11/handling-big-events/
Appreciate that. But, if I may say so, that’s just an excuse, and all we hear all the time is a list of excuses. If you have a public transport service then you take the necessary decisions to make it work, not trot out the same excuses time after time.
“The blame lies at the feet of the State Government”
Never the fact that extra trains = extra crew