Passengers have saved more than $4 million since the cheaper fares were introduced on March 31, with the average V/Line passenger paying 50 per cent less for their trip.
More than 1.5 million people took a trip on public transport across regional Victoria in the first month of the new fares being in place.
The first week alone saw more than 420,000 passengers travel, making it the busiest week on the network since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
V/Line patronage data shows more passengers are taking advantage of cheaper fares to travel to and from major events like the Grand Prix, AFL matches and Groovin’ the Moo, as well as tourism destinations across Victoria, with an uplift in patronage on weekend and special services.
Daily fares are now capped at the current metropolitan fare of $9.20 or $4.60 for concession, while on weekends or public holidays, fares are capped at $6.70 for a full fare or $3.35 for concession per day.
Passengers taking long-distance journeys from regional cities such as Ballarat and Bendigo have saved about $40 for each return journey on the regional public transport network since the cap was introduced.
“We said we’d make regional travel cheaper and that’s what we’ve delivered,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
As Victorians continue to embrace travel on V/Line, the state government will upgrade and boost the regional public transport network, including progressively adding new trains and more services to the network.
Since 2014, an extra 800 V/Line train services have also been added, with 2200 regional train services now operating every week. Almost 200 extra weekend services are set to be added to the V/Line timetable from 2024, with a further order of 23 VLocity trains to meet the demands of a growing network.
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