State government defend safety of Albury V/Line service

A local MP has called for urgent government action after it was revealed overflow buses on the Albury Line were required on more than half of days to June this year. Member for Benambra Bill Tilley said cheap fares had driven unprecedented demand since its introduction in 2023, and even overflow buses haven’t prevented passengers from being forced to stand. Last week in the Victorian Parliament Mr Tilley called on the Minister for Public Transport, Gabrielle Williams, to guarantee the safety of passengers left to stand or sit on “inappropriate” fold down seating. Mr Tilley provided an image from a carriage in the 7am service to Melbourne on 1 August, showing people standing and the emergency side seating fully occupied. Between January and the end of May, it was revealed overflow buses were needed on 78 of the 150 days. Mr Tilley said overcrowded V/Line trains were a catastrophe waiting to happen. “These are trains that can reach speeds of 130kmh, if the train hit something or was derailed, the people inside are travelling at 36m a second,” he said. “They would become a projectile until something stops them – a wall, a seat, a window, more than likely another person. “It would be like getting hit by a small truck – the chances of surviving are slim; of walking away uninjured close to zero.” In recent years, there has been state government investment in improving the Albury Line, with more modern, reliable and accessible VLocity trains introduced onto the line. Mr Tilley said the VLocity was a suburban train and suburban train policy can’t be applied to a four-hour trip. “They have and never will be long-haul passenger trains,” he said. “The cheap fares have seen the service in unprecedented demand and that’s great, but I fear that it is simply not safe. “The government has a choice to make – dump the ticketing policy or invest in the right type of train. “Just making this train into a full set of six carriages, not the current two sets of three cobbled together, would add 57 seats – that’s a busload of people.” Mr Tiley put a question on notice to Ms Williams asking how many services to Albury had been reduced from six to three car sets. Ms Williams said 43 of 617 planned six car services were reduced to three car sets, around seven per cent of scheduled services. “The most common reason for reducing the number of train carriage on the Albury Line was train faults,” she said. “Train faults can range from traction engine and brake faults to operations issues such as door, HVAC, wiper faults.” To give passengers more certainty around seat availability, reservation-only seating was introduced in 2023 on the Albury Line. All seats are available for passengers to reserve prior to travelling. If all seats are booked, passengers have the option of purchasing an unreserved ticket, which may require them to stand for all or part of their journey. Alternatively, passengers may also have the option of travelling on a coach, if one is available. In April this year, V/Line also added an early morning coach service from Benalla, which services Wangaratta, Wodonga and Albury, giving people in the region another option to travel for work and study. A state government spokesperson said the government had given Albury Line passengers more options to get where they need to go in recent years, with the addition of two weekend train services and more coach options to the timetable following the increase in demand from cheaper fares. “The safety of passengers is V/Line’s top priority and they have introduced reservation-only seating on the Albury Line to give passengers more certainty around seat availability,” they said. "We won't take lectures from the Victorian Liberals and Nationals who cut regional rail lines and are inept in delivering major projects." V/Line and the Department of Transport and Planning continue to explore options to make improvements across the network.

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