Locals arriving at Ballan Railway and Woodend Railway Stations last Friday were greeted by a V/Line customer service agent who reminded them that from that day, the cost of a daily ticket for regional passengers was capped at the same price of metropolitan daily fares – $9.20 for a full fare or $4.60 for a concession.
At the last state election, the Labor party committed to a regional fare cap to bring regional public transport fares into line with metropolitan fares.
Minister for Public Transport Ben Carroll, joined the first passengers to benefit from the new regional fare cap, travelling by train from Southern Cross Station to Woodend Station.
“We’re delivering for all Victorians – making public transport more affordable and accessible to passengers in every corner of our state to ensure they can get to where they need to go,” said Mr Carroll. “The regional fare cap will transform the way Victorians travel – and will also provide a huge benefit to regional tourism and businesses.”
For those who take long-distance V/Line journeys, the regional fare cap can save people more than $40 for each one-way journey on the regional public transport network.
The cap also applies to interstate travel within 60 kilometres of the Victorian border, as well as Albury, Merimbula, Deniliquin and Mt Gambier, to ensure those living in border communities in New South Wales and South Australia benefit as well.
The fare cap also applies to all PTV regional buses, town buses and V/Line trains and coaches.
The state government is continuing to boost the public transport network across regional Victoria, running more trains, more often – investing nearly $1.5 billion in 59 new VLocity trains since 2014, which has created around 500 jobs. Since 2014, an extra 800 V/Line train services have also been added with 2,200 regional train services now operating every week.
Almost 200 extra weekend services are set to be added to the V/Line timetable from 2024 and a further order of 23 VLocity trains to meet the demands of a growing network.
For more information or to purchase tickets visit vline.com.au or ptv.vic.gov.au.
