V-Line Media: Ballarat trains boosted with 456 more seats a day

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Ballarat trains boosted with 456 more seats a day     

Media release ~ 17 December 08

Bigger VLocity trains will make their maiden voyage on the Ballarat line today as V/Line permanently converts most of its two-carriage trains into more spacious three-carriage units.

The move is in response to booming rail patronage, and will see an extra carriage added to six Ballarat line trains each weekday from this morning, to boost capacity on busy trains.

V/Line General Manager Ursula McGinnes said the increase provided 456 more seats each weekday on the line as Ballarat, Ballan, Bacchus Marsh and Melton commuters continue to travel by train at near-record levels.

Ms McGinnes said 15,207 more customer trips were made on Ballarat trains this November compared to the same time last year ? a nine per cent increase.

?Last month, Victorians made almost 178,000 trips on the Ballarat line, so this boost in seating will help us meet growing demand.

?Train travel is booming in regional Victoria, and V/Line is supporting this growth by expanding the fleet with an extra carriage each month on the network.

From today, five Ballarat services will be expanded from their previous two-carriage (140 seat) units to run as three-carriage trains with 216 seats:

    * 9:08 Melbourne to Ballarat
    * 11:12 Ballarat to Melbourne
    * 13:08 Melbourne to Ballarat
    * 15:14 Ballarat to Melbourne
    * 16:36 Melbourne to Ballarat (peak service)

The busy peak 7:02 Ballarat to Melbourne train will also ?grow? from its current four carriages to become a five-carriage train from tomorrow morning.

?The 7:02 train to Melbourne in the morning has anywhere between 20 and 60 people standing most days from Ballan or Bacchus Marsh, so the extra 76 seats on this train will be welcome news to regular travelers.

?Similarly, up to 30 people regularly stand on the 16:36 return service back to Ballarat in the afternoon, meaning that train was also a key priority for more seats.

?To some degree the improved speed, comfort and cheaper cost of the V/Line service has been a victim of its own success over the past two years, which is why we?re working hard to continually expand the service.

?Last week as part of the Victorian Transport Plan the Government announced an extra 20 V/Line carriages would be built, on top of our previous orders for 54 more carriages,? Ms McGinnes said.

?So far, six off these 74 new carriages have run off the production line since August this year, providing a combined 1824 extra seats per weekday across 24 services on the V/Line network.

More peak trains will get extra carriages in the coming months with V/Line using daily patronage tallies to prioritise the services to benefit as each new carriage rolls out.

Each extra carriage is used on four to six services across the state every day, with at least one morning and one afternoon busy peak train the main target for extra seating.