Overcrowding on Colac’s rail line has sparked fresh concerns about accessibility and passenger safety, with south-west MPs demanding urgent changes to the service.
Renewed passenger and political frustrations come after a day of heavy congestion across services on the Warrnambool line last Friday which south-west MP Roma Britnell described as a safety “crisis point”.
Overcrowding on Colac’s rail line has sparked fresh concerns about accessibility and passenger safety, with south-west MPs demanding urgent changes to the service.
The issues of overcrowding have been experienced since V/Line took an extraordinary decision to remove the much loved and practical locomotive hauled services from the Warrnambool Line reducing a large amount of seat capacity and consigning the line to a grossly inferior service. Gone are better seats, on train catering and a larger number of seats per service. Only an completely incompetent operator would have approved this decision when they would have or should have known the consequences of such a decision.
The previous CEO failed in his stewardship in approving this change that was clearly never in the best interests of the organisation, the line or the commuters and the new V/Line CEO has turned a blind eye to the issues on the network.
William Tieppo is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of V/Line, Victoria’s regional train and coach operator, having assumed the role on August 25, 2025. He brings over 20 years of transport sector experience, previously serving in senior roles at the Department of Transport and Planning and VicRoads.
It is very clear this man has no idea how to run an operational railway having come from the Department of Transport and Planning an oxymoron if ever you have seen or heard one. So out of depth Tieppo has failed to address many issues on the network and instead has chosen to adopt the ostrich position.
His claim to fame is the procure of rolling stock for Victoria which many would and have said is a filed programme. Victoria continues to purchase diesel trains for suburban lines, has failed to manage long distance commuter requirements meaning service levels have significantly declined and we have a rail network in crisis with escalating diesel fuel costs and no plan for electrification of key regional routes like Geelong.
You could not make this up is such a mess and once the Victorian mantra “no one is to blame and no one is accountable”.
The line is so popular, clearly we need more services! Surely there would be many people on board who would have preferred to leave earlier or later. So increase the services on the Warrnambool line.
Where this is not currently possible, add some bus services from Waurn Ponds west.
Upgrading of the platforms across the state that don’t fit 6 carriages also needs to be done, so that the whole Warrnambool line can be serviced by the 6 cars instead of 3 on each trip.
Train travel & public transport in general is becoming more and more popular so we need to keep the pressure on for service improvements.
While we’re at it, how about some increased bus services to/ from Lorne & Apollo Bay to meet the trains to/ from Meln & Warrnambool
Remember it’s an election year!
Richard, we appreciate your ongoing efforts to push for improved services. We deserve better country and regional services.
The current situation is unacceptable, with passengers left standing and no available seating, despite having booked seats. The lack of luggage space is also a significant issue, with bicycles being placed in areas designated for luggage or accessible seats. We previously had a five-carriage train, which we fought to replace.
However, the new train has only three carriages, which we warned would be insufficient. In retrospect, we should have kept the older train, which, although flawed, was superior to the current one.
Our request is simple: we want an accessible carriage on every service, which was not the case before. We also need to ensure that the disabled toilet is functioning properly, as it was out of order on some services, causing difficulties for passengers traveling to Melbourne and other destinations.
It is disappointing that, in 2026, we are still fighting for basic improvements, such as additional carriages to address overcrowding. Perhaps passengers from Geelong should consider alternative transportation, as our train is struggling to cope with demand. We do not understand why they need to use our train when they have frequent services to Melbourne and Southern Cross.
Furthermore, many passengers are calling for the reinstatement of the canteen service
Sadly this what happens when the frontline and cab commiteesw have no say on the proccess of getting new rolling stock, it get approved by people who don’t know what a train or have never experinced riding in those newer train and older train alike and rely on outdated data from third parties who don’t even use or travel on their own system in uncontrolled settings and reject the user’s feed back as result…..
It better to refurbish the older N set and reconditon the loco then spend $$$ modifying plaforms……
Until we can get something like push pull Intercity model of the QR and aging xpt Configuration…..
Simple fix. Ditch the Vlocity trains and put the locomotive hauled carriages back in service. Then cancel some of the order for more Vlocitys and tender for new long distance carriages based on the previous and much better N set carriages. I must note that both sides of politics have for years been calling for use of Vlocity trains on long distance services, but the indisputable fact is Vlocitys are not built or suitable for long distance service.