Passengers forced to sit on floor, stand, on train trip to Albury

Wodonga retiree Heather Carmody said she saw 40 people, including several elderly people and a woman with a young toddler, forced to sit on the floor on the midday journey from Broadmeadows to Wodonga.

"It was a shemozzle, an absolute disgrace," Ms Carmody said.

"We just came in from overseas so we just wanted to get home to Wodonga but we certainly didn't want to travel that way and it was awful seeing these frail, elderly people risking their safety on the floor of the carriage.

"Everyone was furious, some were saying it was like a third world country but having just come from there, this was much worse.

"It was dangerous for people who are frail because just getting to the toilet is dangerous, you have to step over people.

"Some people were sitting in luggage racks.

"I walked from one end of the train to the other and counted every single person who was forced to either sit on the floor or stand and the tally came to 40."

The incident is a repeat of what happened last September when passengers embarked on the same route at the same time and were forced to sit on the floor when the train had only three carriages.

Another passenger on the 12.04pm Melbourne to Albury V/Line train on Friday, Siobhan Horsfall, also from Wodonga, said she had booked a priority seat for the journey because she has a disabilty and was travelling with her daughter.

She said the female conductor on the train told her V/Line was unable to add three more carriages to the three-carriage train because of a "mechanical issue".

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"I said, well with this overcrowding of the carriages, why aren't there buses and she was at a bit of a loss, her hands were tied," Ms Horsfall said.

"It wasn't her fault, she did her best to get people seated and make them comfortable but what else could she have done - there just weren't enough seats.

Border Rail Action Group representative John Dunstan said he was puzzled as to why V/Line doesn't have a system to quickly organise buses when it could only run three carriages.

"There's a simple solution," Mr Dunstan said. "If they don't have enough carriages, just organise a coach but for some reason they don't do this.

"It just seems like a lack of managerial interest in care of passengers."

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