Dan Andrews hails regional fare cap, but sceptics doubt rail system will cope

The regional train fare rejig means regional trips will initially be capped at $9.20 for a full fare or $4.60 for a concession, and at $6.70 and $3.35 for concession on weekends and public holidays.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said on Tuesday, March 21 the revamped fare system gave regional people the same fare equity that metropolitan Melbourne enjoys.

"Yes, there'll be some increase in the number of people who use V/Line because they were previously priced out of it," Mr Andrews said. "To ensure that extra patrons will be able to be looked after we're confident we have the capacity."

Border Rail Action Group representative John Dunstan said he doubted the rolling stock numbers would be upgraded to cope with the influx of passengers. "We certainly won't complain about cheaper fares, but it will increase the patronage," Mr Dunstan said.

"All we hope is that they'll be able to reduce the number of times when they need put on three carriages instead of six and therefore have people either standing up, or put on buses ... if they're there."

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"The system is a shambles. The main cause of this is that they've got insufficient rolling stock to properly service even the existing number of services they have, because it appears that whenever something goes wrong, especially at short notice, they haven't got a full six car carriage to replace it with.

"So all they do is drop off the offending three carriages and run with the three that are there."

Mr Andrews said the cap will also apply to interstate travel within 60 kilometres of the Victorian border, "to ensure those living in border communities in NSW and South Australia benefit as well".

"At the end of the day, those border communities operate not necessarily as part of Victoria or NSW, they've kind of a border community among themselves," he said.

"And to a lot of them the border doesn't mean that much to them so it's important that we look after them on both sides of the river.

"It'll benefit regional communities across the border, whether you're in Albury, Deniliquin or Merimbula.

"It's not just as a change to fares, but a continuation of our rolling stock strategy which is $1.5 billion in regional rolling stock, an order over $600 million for 23, new three-car Velocity sets.

"This is about giving the hundreds of thousands of people who travel on the line every year a cost of living relief, really significant practical relief, in terms of their cost of living.

"It's also not just about getting from Melbourne, or getting from the regions to Melbourne, it's about people traveling out into regional Victoria, and taking their spend with them."

For years, Mr Dunstan has called for more rolling stock to be available to replace carriages quickly when they break down.

In January, many passengers reported a "nightmare rail trip" from Melbourne to Victoria's North East when up to 40 people, including several elderly people and a woman with a young toddler, were forced to sit on the floor on the midday journey from Broadmeadows to Wodonga.

Mr Dunstan said: "All our group is requesting is that the Victorian government orders at least one more set of six carriages so that V/Line can have more backup."

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