Three months down the track from the introduction of a flat V/Line fare price cap across the state, and public transport advocates say more needs to be done to improve Ballarat rail access to Melbourne.
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From March 31, the Victorian government introduced a daily fare price maximum of $9.20 for regional train passengers, following on from a Labor election promise.
When the plan was announced, there were fears the price cut would result in overcrowding on Ballarat trains, and some Ballarat residents have taken to the internet to vent their frustrations at having standing room-only carriages.
Public Transport Users Association Ballarat convener Ben Lever said the crowds were "unsurprising", and was waiting on V/Line to increase the frequency of services from Melbourne in response.
"Unsurprisingly, it has led to more people using the system, which is a good thing in many ways, but you have to have the services there to cope with the increase in passenger numbers," he said.
"That hasn't really materialized.
"You might have an event that finishes and causes a sudden surge in passengers, at those times it would be relatively easier for V/Line and the government to add extra services.
"It would just be about fixing up the timetable and making sure that there is enough track capacity."
The call for more services comes after the V/Line added a extra weekend train services to the Albury line, which came into effect on July 1.
Commuters can catch a train from Southern Cross Station to Wendouree every hour on Saturday, starting at 7.14am and ending at 1.16am the following morning.
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In comparison, commuters will only have to wait 40 minutes between trains from Melbourne to Geelong.
Public Transport Victoria announced that from July 1 the daily fare cap which applies to travellers around the state will increase from $9.20 to $10 and from $4.60 to $5 for concessions.
Mr Lever said the recent increase was another "potential side effect" of having a flat-fare system.
"This is one of the potential side effects to having a flat-capped system. It starts out very cheap, particularly for long journeys, but it is relatively expensive for short journeys," he said.
"You'll find what happens is that they have to raise that level fare for everyone above inflation so that they can pay for the money they are not getting from those long-distance passengers any more. Everyone pays to subsidize those really long trips."
Mr Lever said the flat-fare cap also undermined the efforts of public transport advocates in cities such as Horsham and Mildura, who were advocating to restore previously cut passenger services to their cities.
"They will run reports and business cases based on the assumption that it will bring good ticket revenue. All of those reports are now totally worthless if the money that now comes in from tickets is no where near what it used to be, or not proportional to the distance travelled.
"It does make it harder to argue for returning those services, because it is making it much for substantive from the government to fund it."
The Department of Transport was contacted but did not supply a comment in time for publication.
