Commuters give their thoughts on Ballarat rail service

V/Line has admitted there were "significant challenges" to its service delivery from Ballarat in recent months, after new figures revealed 98 services were cancelled outright between July 1 and August 1.

This comes after freedom of information documents obtained by The Age suggested proposed new train lines to Melton and Wyndham Vale may be off the table.

The Courier took Ballarat's morning train to Melbourne on Friday to speak to commuters about their thoughts on the service, which many say has reliability issues.

Key issues raised were the frequency and reliability of trains, replacement buses, overcrowding through the Melbourne suburbs and Wi-Fi connections on the commute.

ARE YOU A REGULAR TRAIN COMMUTER? HAVE YOUR SAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY

Commuter Kate Jarvis only recently started taking the train into Melbourne from Ballarat for work. Prior to this she drove into the city, and only took the train to Melbourne for irregular social visits.

"My experiences of catching the train over the last few months have been frustrating," Ms Jarvis said.

"It seems it is always being upgraded, there are stops at the station and then we are transferred to buses. Even last week to get to Melton I had to get off at Bacchus Marsh, get off the platform and get on another one. I didn't know why that was."

Disruptions have come to the Ballarat train line in recent weeks due to works on the West Gate Tunnel project.

From July 30 until August 13, commuters have been required to get off at Caroline Springs station, and be transferred onto a bus for the remainder of the journey to Southern Cross.

Ms Jarvis said she would like to see a more reliable service, and something done to address overcrowding through Melbourne's western suburbs.

"It is taking me a long time to get to work. The service comes and goes. The time socially I go on the weekend, I get on and I don't even have a seat.

"A month ago, it was a Sunday, on the way back we had to get buses. I was standing for an hour on the train. It was really crowded. It was uncomfortable.

"The frustration of the timetables, the buses, the overcrowding - the promises they have made to us. We really need a fast train to Melbourne."

Commuters Siobhan Horvatic and Leeza Braxton both work in Footscray and commute into the city from Ballarat four times a week.

"It is not great. It is pretty inconsistent. Trains will get cancelled at random, and now with the roadworks it is a two hour trip, when it is normally an hour and fifteen minutes," Ms Braxton said.

"We find that when we get on from Footscray on the way home, we usually have to stand until Melton at least. Sometimes until Bacchus Marsh because the train is overcrowded. It is not so bad in the mornings."

Ms Horvatic said she was pleased with the $9.20 per day V/Line fare cap, but believed the service needed more capacity.

"We were originally playing $120 for seven days," Ms Horvatic said.

"(The state government) have the stats to realise how populated these areas are, so (they) should be able to work V/Line services to have the amount of space and carriages.

"Three carriages to get to Ballarat is not enough.

"We just need more services. There needs to be enough seats for everyone. It is not fair that people have to stand up for an hour."

Commuter Emma Beeton takes the train into Melbourne four times a week for work.

She said more reliability was needed, with disruptions often causing her to run late.

"When it is good, it is great, but more often than not it is terrible," Ms Beeton said.

"Some days it takes me up to three hours to get either to the office or home from the office.

"We sat at Ballan for 45 minutes the other night. I get that there is not much you can do about it, but it is very unreliable."

She also called the switch from trains to buses at Caroline Springs station this week "chaos".

"I made arrangements to work from home the other week, but when I caught it the other day it was chaos," Ms Beeton said.

"No one knows which bus to catch, everyone is running everywhere.

"I was paying over $45 a day back before the train cap and it was like, what is my money going towards. We are on this packed train, everyone is paying $50 each way."

University student Kaleb Farrugia catches the train in every day.

"Overall it is fine, but obviously there are some road bumps every once in a while, like stopping at Caroline Springs," Mr Farrugia said.

"I don't think that the train is reliable. I think they are doing the best they can, but I think the biggest issue is over-capacity on trains, especially on this line. The congestion really picks up after Bacchus Marsh."

Mr Farrugia said he would like to see more carriages on trains on the Ballarat line - ""maybe an increase in frequency of trains across the line, but that is a lot to ask for a regional line."

Josh Stewart takes the train into Melbourne three times a week for work, and said the post-lockdown increase in service frequency has been beneficial.

"The frequency has improved dramatically post-COVID. The services in the morning in particular. It used to be that if you missed the main service you would have to wait 40 minutes for another one. Now it is maybe 15 or 20 minutes," Mr Stewart said.

"The reliability can be a bit more of a mixed bag. It hasn't been too bad lately, other than the buses."

Mr Stewart said he regularly does work from his laptop on the work home, despite a spotty connection, and reliable Wi-Fi would be better.

"It was talked about a lot a long time ago, but it never went ahead for some reason. It would be good. The signal is not great between Ballan and Bacchus Marsh, it is pretty poor," Mr Stewart said.

"The biggest one for me would be around doing something with the metro lines at the Melbourne end. That has certainly been the biggest problem recently.

"The lowering of the fares has been great, that has made a huge difference. That saves me a few thousand every year. It is certainly big enough to notice."

Between July 1 and August 1, V/Line scheduled 2650 services on the Ballarat, Ararat and Maryborough lines, with 98 services cancelled outright, 21 services terminating early and six services have a short departure.

A V/Line spokesperson said works along the line had made July a "difficult" month for commuters.

However, the spokesperson said V/Line had still met its reliability target for "nine of the past 12 months" on the Ballarat line.

"Over the past month, the vast majority of V/Line's 2650 schedules services on the western corridor were delivered despite significant challenges to the network, including major works impacting the corridor," the spokesperson said.

During May, crews completed critical track and signaling system upgrades works in the Ballarat Station precinct.

The upgrades to help improve the reliability of train services were part of a $26 million works blitz on the Ballarat, Ararat and Maryborough lines.

Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said he was disappointed to see the potential cancellation of a plan to build a new line to service Melton and Wyndham Vale stations.

Once built the proposed lines would be separated from the Ballarat and Geelong V/Line trains, which currently share the same line with metro trains into the city, requiring regional trains to stop and slow down at each station.

In a story published by The Age on Wednesday, the newspaper obtained freedom of information documents from Rail Projects Victoria suggesting the plans for the Melton and Wyndham Vale lines were not going ahead.

The documents state "the provision of metropolitan services is highly likely to involve electrification on the existing RRL (Regional Rail Link) corridor through Sunshine Station."

Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan called The Age's story "incorrect" and said the documents obtained by the newspaper were internal planning documents which were not reflective of government policy.

Mr Poulton said duplication and electrification were necessary due to the booming growth of Melbourne's western suburbs.

"(It's) disappointing to read that it seems like it is being reconsidered. We understand that there are infrastructure pipelines that are required and that these things need to occur in the right order," Mr Poulton said.

"We reiterate that Ballarat's rail services, as well as Geelong and Bendigo, can only be as efficient as possible if those commuters in Melton all the way into Melbourne come off the V/Line lines and into a metro service.

"The western suburbs deserve a metro style service, and Ballarat, Geelong and Bendigo can only improve their travel times to Melbourne and reduce the congestion time on that line with growing populations with the separation of those services."

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