Many forced to miss reunions

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Many forced to miss reunions

Many forced to miss reunions
Article from: Herald Sun

Megan McNaught

December 26, 2007 12:00am

COMMUTERS had to hastily alter their Christmas Day plans yesterday after overcrowded V/Line trains left them stranded on platforms.

Lured by free train travel, passengers crowded on to country lines operating on a limited Sunday timetable.

Some lines could not cope with the demand.

Ian Adams missed Christmas lunch with his family at Marshall, near Geelong, because he could not fit on to a V/Line train at Southern Cross station.

He said the train had just two carriages and both were overflowing when it pulled up at 11am.

"People tried to fit on, but there was no room and about 50 people were left behind on the platform," Mr Adams said.

"There were a lot of families with kids and they were all looking around bewildered."

The next train to Marshall was not until 3pm, long after Christmas lunch was served, so he had to skip the annual family reunion.

"I didn't want to wait around on Christmas Day so I decided to head home," he said.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen was at Southern Cross station at 9am seeing someone off and said trains on the Geelong/Warrnambool line were packed.

"It was very crowded. People were standing up in the aisles and there wasn't much room," Mr Bowen said.

He said announcements over the loudspeaker told people to get on or wait an hour for the next train while passengers were still crowding the doors.

"I am not sure if anyone got left behind, but some people probably chose to wait for the next train because it takes an hour to get to Geelong and that can be a long time to stand up."

He said other lines did not seem as busy.

"It seems that V/Line underestimated how many people would be using the services."

V/Line spokeswoman Rebecca Cusack said it was hard to estimate how many people would use the trains on Christmas Day.

"This is the third year the Government has offered free train travel on Christmas Day," Ms Cusack said. "It has proven extremely popular.

"We have based our seating requirements on past demand and we will be having a look at patronage this year to decide what we provide next Christmas," she said.

She said trains ran on a modified Sunday timetable, with most scheduled in the morning and afternoon and fewer in the middle of the day when people would be having Christmas lunch.