The scheme will continue until the end of April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But travellers on regional V\/Line services say rising fuel costs due to the war in Iran have already led to a surge in public transport patronage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They fear free transport could make it harder to secure a seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kate Young hopped on the train from Bairnsdale, three-and-a-half hours east of Melbourne, on Saturday morning and was surprised at the number of passengers waiting on the small country platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We were jammed in there like sardines,” Ms Young said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I couldn’t believe how busy Bairnsdale station was on a Saturday morning. I’ve never seen it like that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n V\/Line typically operates three-car VLocity sets on the Gippsland line, which have about 236 seats, as well as six-car sets that double capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Ms Young said she was surprised when all the seats were filled within a few stops, leaving standing room only for the remainder of the journey to Melbourne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an attempt to save some money amid rising fuel costs, Ms Young chose to take the train to Caulfield instead of driving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said conditions on the train were chaotic as the conductor attempted to move through crowded aisles, while onlookers at passing platforms watched in disbelief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There was an older couple in front of me and they would take turns [sitting],” Ms Young said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They had one seat and one of them was standing, so they alternated during the trip.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n With regional trains already reaching seating capacity at peak times, Ms Young fears the service will only deteriorate amid free access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “How can it not get worse, particularly now \u2026 with no bookings, with free train travel \u2014 it’s going to be a roulette as to whether you get a seat or not,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Warragul commuter Malcom McCaffery is a musician and composer who regularly travels to Melbourne for concerts, but said finding a spot to sit on the journey was becoming increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It was way more packed than usual on the Sunday already, just because of \u2026 the cost of petrol at the moment,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There’s a lot more people on the V\/Line, and that was before the free travel had even come in.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr McCaffery said while he valued the ability to work while travelling, overcrowding could change how he approached his commute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s quite a long trip to the city \u2026 if they haven’t got extra carriages or something to cater for extra demand, it could be very uncomfortable,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Public Transport Users Association spokesperson Daniel Bowen said the regional network had struggled to keep pace with demand, with free travel in April likely to place further strain on services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There are concerns about crowding already, and obviously that’s likely to be worsened during April when there is free travel on offer,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “There’s been a lot of patronage growth on V-Line in the last couple of years, including on the Gippsland line since they cut the fares. And so it’s quite cheap to use V-Line now, particularly for those longer distance trips.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n With V\/Line’s regional network spanning 3,500 kilometres of track, Mr Bowen said the state government should “provide better public transport services to more Victorians”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Some of those journeys are three-plus hours,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What you don’t want to see is large numbers of passengers who may not be \u2026 able to stand, but being forced to for hours and hours on end.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n V\/Line has almost 140 VLocity trains and runs a combination of three and six carriages trains across the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We will continue to closely monitor patronage across the network over coming weeks and where possible have coaches on stand-by at key locations to assist passengers,” a V\/Line spokesperson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ABC News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" V\/Line has almost 140 VLocity trains and runs a combination of three and six carriages trains across the network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":154910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,47,186],"tags":[993,8],"class_list":["post-400986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-rail-news","category-v-line","tag-melbourne","tag-victoria"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400992,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400986\/revisions\/400992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/154910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-07_134005602.png\")
Standing room only<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-07_133948637.png\")
Passengers rethinking commute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image_2026-04-07_133936769.png\")
Increased demand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n