Vern Hilditch,executive principal of Wodonga Senior Secondary College,said he was aware of incidents where teachers in northeast Victoria had booked V/Line seats weeks in advance for school excursions,only to step onto the train and find many of those seats already occupied.
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As a result,some students had to stand or sit on the floor of the carriage for much of the three-hour journey.
“That’s been an issue raised by some staff and the community to me,” Hilditch said.
“If we’re sending an excursion from Wodonga to Melbourne,I have to weigh up the safety and the risk to students and staff.
“I’m caught between a relatively cheap train fare or hiring the bus which,of course,is incredibly expensive.”
Hilditch said teachers needed to be able to seat their students together on transport for supervision purposes.
He expected there would be more opportunities for students to visit Melbourne for career expos and to see institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria if V/Line’s seating issues could be resolved.
“We’d love to see the cheaper fares continue,” he said. “It’s just that the system has to be improved. Either more carriages or more services.”
Public Transport Users Association regional spokesman Paul Westcott said overcrowding was happening increasingly on weekends.
He said the association had received complaints from passengers who had been forced to stand for the entire journey from Ballarat into the city.
“You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to predict it,” he said. “We are getting increasing complaints from passengers about overcrowded services.”
When Liberal MP Bill Tilley raised the issue in parliament in May regarding passengers on the Albury line,Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll encouraged commuters who had to stand to “use the hand holds available”.
Opposition public transport spokesman Richard Riordan labelled this response “tone deaf” given regional train trips often went on for much longer than metropolitan services.
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“We deserve much better,” he said. “Passengers being forced to stand on train carriages for hours on end wouldn’t be acceptable anywhere else,so why is it just another day on the V/Line here in Victoria?”
Riordan called on the state government to ensure V/Line implemented a better booking service and ensured passengers were kept safe at all times.
Horsley said there had been more than 100 additional special services each month since the introduction of cheaper fares.
He said almost 200 permanent weekend services would be added to V/Line’s timetable from next year.
“The regional fare cap is continuing to be extremely popular with Victorians,with around 5 million trips taken on the V/Line network and more than $15 million saved by passengers since the start of the cap,” he said.
Carroll said he stood by the timing of the fare cap given the rising cost of living,and pointed to recent budget papers that flagged the delivery of 23 new VLocity trains.
“We introduced fairer fares as soon as we could – capping regional fares at the same rates as metro fares – to reduce cost of living pressures and boost regional tourism.”
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