Reduced fares caused bump in numbers

IT’S been almost a month-and-a-half since VLine fares were capped at a maximum nine dollars and twenty cents by the State Government.

But what’s the impact been like?

Ashleigh House works at Bendigo Station and said there’s been a noticeable increase in travellers since the change came into effect on 31 March.

“A lot of the feedback’s been pretty positive, especially for a lot of people who travel for medical appointments to the city and work,” she said.

“However, the flip side of that is services are a lot busier. That can make it a lot trickier because only the Swan Hill services have reserved seating.

“It’s saving people a lot of money. We’ll just have to see what happens in the future.”

Ms House said the 9.20am weekday train from Swan Hill is one of the busiest, and weekend services are also often full.

However, the reduced fares have seen a noticeable bump in traveller numbers across the board.

“Peak is still from 5.46 to 6.53 in the morning,” she said. “Then anytime there’s football, so the weekends are really busy, and a lot of the more country services are a lot busier.

“People are just travelling at all times of the day.”

Jarred Peters takes the train to Melbourne every second week to collect his daughter and said he supported the fare reduction.

“I think it’s good, it’s definitely helped,” he said. “I use public transport more since it’s gone down.”