/LINE has responded to community concerns about overcrowding and service reliability on the Seymour Line.
In a statement to the North Central Review, a V/Line spokesperson confirmed the Victorian Government’s 2025/26 Budget commitment aimed at easing pressure during peak time services.
The extra services form part of a $52 million investment to increase services across the regional network. While specific dates for the new Seymour services have not yet been confirmed, planning is underway.
“Seymour Line passengers will have more travel options during the busiest times of the day, with two additional weekday peak services funded in the recent Victorian Budget,” the spokesperson said.
V/Line said it has been regularly monitoring patronage across the network alongside the Department of Transport and Planning to explore options for further improvements.
Further improvements are on the horizon for weekend services, matching similar announcements made earlier in the year for Ballarat, Ararat, Bendigo and Warrnambool lines.
The future plans include having services run every hour between 8am and 9pm on weekends as part of the Victorian Government’s commitment for almost 200 extra weekend services.
Last week, the North Central Review reported passenger frustrations about carriage reductions, overcrowding and cancellations.
“We thank passengers for their understanding when services are busy and we make every effort to run services with their scheduled carriage allocation,” the spokesperson said.
V/Line cited a spike in animal strikes on the network as a contributing factor.
“In recent months, there has been a significant number of animal strikes on the network, which has meant there has been a higher-than-normal number of trains unavailable to operate services resulting in a large number of carriage reductions,” V/Line said.
“These animal strikes have significantly increased the number of trains requiring bio-wash, with some trains also then requiring repairs due to damage from the incident.”
The increase in animal strikes have resulted in crews operating additional bio-wash hours which V/Line said was to minimise the impact on passenger services.
In regard to the roll-out of VLocity trains, V/Line said the modernised carriages began being introduced on weekday services on the Seymour line last year and it is continuing to rollout further carriages across the entire network as they come off the production line.
In recent weeks, V/Line said 130 VLocity carriages entered service.