Labor has pledged faster and more frequent train services between Geelong and Melbourne if re-elected, but has provided few details on how it plans to address the ongoing disruptions affecting commuters.
The Geelong line has consistently fallen short of its punctuality target since November 2025, with only 81.5 per cent of services arriving on time in October, compared with the target of 92 per cent.
V/Line defines a service as punctual if it arrives within five minutes and 59 seconds of its scheduled arrival time.
Passengers have also been affected by short-stopping, where trains terminate before reaching their scheduled destination.
Between May 1 and July 24, V/Line issued 196 notices about short-stopping on the Geelong line, including 126 on weekdays.
The disruptions have left commuters stranded before reaching their intended destinations, forcing them to find alternative ways to complete their journeys.
These ongoing reliability issues come despite timetable changes introduced in August, which added more services to Waurn Ponds and increased capacity on the Geelong line.
Under Labor’s latest election promise, services from Waurn Ponds would double from 2027, with trains running every 10 minutes during peak periods and every 20 minutes during off-peak hours.
Most weekday off-peak services would also operate express to Melbourne, bypassing outer suburban stations, including Wyndham Vale, and reducing journey times to less than an hour.
However, speaking at Waurn Ponds station on Thursday, Premier Ben Carroll did not explain how the proposed changes would address the short-stopping and reliability problems currently experienced by passengers.
Instead, Carroll highlighted Labor’s investment in locally manufactured trains.
“You’ve got to make the trains here in Victoria for our local network, not introduce new concepts like hybrid trains,” he said.
“We know our trains, we know our train lines, and that’s why we’ll continue to invest in them – made by Victorians, for Victorians, and being delivered to people here in Geelong to get them where they need to get to.”
South Barwon Labor candidate Rebecca Thistleton acknowledged commuter frustrations but said previous rail infrastructure upgrades had created the conditions needed to increase service frequency.
“Initiatives like this can only happen after the line’s been duplicated and more stabling has been built down here, because now that we do have more rolling stock coming online we’ve actually got somewhere for it to stay in Waurn Ponds,” she said.
“Effectively, this is the next step in making Waurn Ponds the terminus for every train that is coming from Geelong.”
The announcement did not include any specific commitments to improve bus connections to Geelong line stations.
However, Thistleton said she wanted to see more bus services operating to and from Waurn Ponds station.
“I don’t like the idea of people having to drive a second family car to the train station and leave it sitting here all day,” she said.
“Ideally we want people to be able to catch the bus to the train station and for there to be really good connections.
“I’ve been calling for more buses here for quite some time and I will continue to do so.”
A decison made by desk bound jockeys MPs and their advisors who never use the v/line service!!!
The amount time between train is 20-30 mins on Geelong Lines anything goes wrong train services don’t run or cancalled mid route and terminated at Geelong or Marshall etc!
Due the lack of wiggle room for train control to oversee the train movement in the corridor.
This what happen when desk bound MPs and advisor have more say then the frontline operating, driving and managing train movement in the Vic Rail System!
The majors had their chance and stuffed it, time let the newer parties have a go!!!