This demonstrates there is demand for rail services if it's superior to driving. In this case with cost.
Hopefully the long term response to this will be more services and maybe even restoration of old lines that have fallen out of use in the past 100 years. There used to be rail services going to most towns in the state. It'd be so great to see some of those come back.
Yeah, this is in a way a good sign. Although they should've probably invested in more rolling stock before actually implementing this plan.
Nah man, build demand first, services 20yrs later. It's the aussie way
But make sure the services you build in 20 years are sufficient for the demand now, not for the demand in 20 years
scrapping hitachis woooooooo
The Perennial problem is the fucking NIMBYs.
Even the Pedestrian/Bike/Horse rail trails are being blocked by residents who don’t want strangers near their property. Even in areas with a large Horse-enthusiast population. Even where under-utilised sporting fields are accessible from the old alignment.
Other existing rail trails are being sabotaged by locals, much to the detriment of local businesses such as cafes, micro-breweries and distilleries.
Honestly we need a law that says if you oppose public transport, your house gets seized and you get banned from receiving any income
Even simpler if you don't like being near strangers don't buy near public land
Vline finally in line with the metro experience lol.
Also who the fuck complains about too much patronage on a pay for travel service?
just add more trains lmao, more patronage is a great thing
The network upgrades required to “just add more trains” would be very expensive, and Vic Labor are already running up more debt than they can afford.
Of course, this means that anyone who values their comfort and has a car will drive instead, leaving public transport as a soup kitchen service.
@AllNewTypeFace @just_kitten I think this is really only happening on the Albury line - other services have likely seen a decent increase in patronage, but it's likely going to make rural services more viable in terms of numbers, and on the really popular routes hopefully a real increase in services. In 2019 I took rural PT to a bunch of different places in Victoria, East West and North from Melbourne, and only North was really even half way busy.
Have you not been on the Geelong Line? It’s busier than the North by far.
I've heard the Warrnambool line has similar issues too (plus it overlaps with the Geelong line)
I wouldn’t call the Warrnambool service busy compared to Albury. But they do get delayed behind Geelong trains a lot.
I haven't actually caught the Albury line in years so fair call!
I've done both of them in the recent months and I found Albury to be busier than the Warrnambool line was. Warrnambool seemed packed, but really it was only the first car. I ended up moving seats because the other 3 or 4 cars were almost empty, it was only really the former first class car everyone really wanted to sit in. Albury I actually struggled to get a ticket on for a while and ended up sitting in a full of a seats with people on all sides of me (not necessarily an issue, just not something I had happen on the Warrnambool line in either direction)
@princessnorah largely the stations that are still technically metro, from memory (and that goes for Ballarat too) beyond that it seems to thin out a fair bit.
You’re not wrong, it does thin out and they really need to electrify to Melton & Wyndham Vale. Still, I don’t think there’s anywhere near enough evidence yet that there’s a problem caused by the fare drop. The article’s main conceit was a service that had its number of carriages cut back. That’s an operational problem caused by an entirely separate issue.
Put it this way. If the service was that empty before that losing half its carriages didn’t cause crowding, if everyone still got a seat, wouldn’t that be a problem? That means that it would have been under half capacity.
If the fare drop means more capacity is being used on services that used to be relatively empty, then I’d say it’s working successfully. The more people it encourages to take the train, that would have just been an empty seat before, the less it will cost the taxpayer. Let alone the environmental benefits. Even if you hate the train, it’ll take cars off the West Gate coming from Geelong & Ballarat.
Sorry, I don’t mean to @ you specifically I just can’t believe how much of a whinge this article is. Oh no! It’s cheaper! The riffraff can afford to travel and they’re taking all the seats! clutches pearls
I don’t think it’s the fare drop, it’s all the dormitory suburbs they’ve built along the Geelong and Ballarat lines.
You must be joking. Passenger volumes on the Ballarat line just keep increasing as they build more dormitory suburbs along the corridor. Morning peak trains are routinely at crush capacity before reaching Melton, making it very difficult to actually catch a train to work in Melbourne from Melton.
@cuavas that sounds like they need to increase services at rush hour - I'll admit I've only travelled that route off-peak.
The lines are at capacity already, and they've cancelled the signaling upgrades for the western lines promised before the last election because they can't afford it. They've also cancelled building additional track to Melton to increase capacity (yet another broken promise). They're saying they'll extend platforms to allow 9-car trains, but I doubt it will be enough.
@cuavas yeah, it's pretty shit. I guess allowing more flexibility on when people start and finish work plus continuing work from home options might help a bit. But yeah, there needs to be serious investment to improve things.
How to tell OP doesn’t use V/Line:
The first paragraph of the article comments on the “dreaded replacement bus” but the gov has just spent $4b upgrading the regional rail network, that’s why. The interview at the start, where the “find a spot on the floor” quote is from, was because of a single service that had been cut from 6-cars down to 3. That’s a fucking thin argument to make. For a start, it’s partly because they’re withdrawing Loco services to Albury and replacing them with VLocity sets. The Albury line is the only standard gauge V/line service in the state, so they can’t just grab any old set, and only so many have been delivered from that special order.
As well, this isn’t some bloody new occurrence caused by the price drop. I lived in Geelong back in 2019. Anytime a single peak service was cancelled, every single one after, until about an hour after the usual peak, would be way more packed than this photo. You wouldn’t be able to point the camera to take this shot for all the people crammed in like sardines.
This is such a bullshit article to write during a cost of living crisis. Every single person I know that uses it has found it a big relief. They found a couple of chumps so they could write a “Oh no, look, the government’s bad ackshually” whiiiiiine piece.
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