Victoria’s busiest and most popular regional rail line will be the first to carry the longest passenger trains in the
Victoria’s busiest and most popular regional rail line will be the first to carry the longest passenger trains in the state in response to the booming patronage.
Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky says the first seven-carriage VLocity train will run on the Geelong line from Monday November 10 on four peak hour services every weekday.
“We know that some services on the Geelong line are very busy and this seven-carriage train will add an extra 76 seats meaning there’s now seats for 496 passengers for every service,” Kosky says.
“Over the past two years, people have embraced extra services and cheaper fares in record numbers and it is pleasing to see that our investment in regional rail services continues to serve an ever growing number of commuters.
“In past financial year, more than 11 million trips were made on the V/Line rail network and more than three millions trips were made on the Geelong line.”
Platforms at Marshall, South Geelong and North Melbourne stations are currently being lengthened to allow V/Line to run the super-sized trains.
The seven-carriage VLocity trains will run on the:
- 06:50 Marshall to Southern Cross;
- 07:17 South Geelong to Southern Cross;
- 16:40 Southern Cross to Marshall; and
- 17:29 Southern Cross to Marshall.
Temporary arrangements, including an extra conductor, will be in place to allow the seven-carriage VLocities to stop at Marshall, South Geelong and North Melbourne until works to extend platforms at these stations are completed.
V/Line General Manager Ursula McGinnes said V/Line had worked to provide more capacity on trains where possible.
“With fuel prices rising, we’ve seen unprecedented growth on all of our trains,” McGinnes says.
“We’ve manoeuvred the fleet to provide more carriages to some services that are consistently full.
“With these new seven-carriage trains, people should start to see a gradual increase in capacity on some of our peak trains.”
The changes are part of the new regional timetable taking effect from Sunday November 9 to coincide with a new metropolitan train timetable which will provide 328 new and extended services across the network.