‘What country is this?': Huge crowds descend on Melbourne train platform

News.com.au

13 hours ago

A crush of commuters jostle for space on an already overcrowded train platform as more and more people stream down escalators and pile on.
It is a scene that would make even the most seasoned commuter anxious.
On Thursday night, footage emerged from one of Melbourne's busiest stations showing what happens when trains are delayed to the country.
The video from Southern Cross Station, shared by 3AW's Jacqui Felgate, caused a huge reaction.
'Melbourne public transport — the gift that keeps on giving,' one person wrote online.
'What country is this in?' another wrote.
The jarring vision has again shone the light on the under-fire regional train services that operate in Victoria.
Those who live outside Melbourne need to travel on V/Line trains to the country. The network services areas like Seymour, Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.
The commute is long enough without being stuck on overcrowded platforms. But those who regularly travel this way say it is an almost-daily nightmare.
News.com.au understands the mad rush to get a spot on platforms 15 and 16 at Southern Cross on Thursday night was caused by a track equipment fault in the North Melbourne area that meant only two platforms could be used.
'We thank passengers for their patience and understanding with disruptions to services on Thursday night due to a track equipment fault in the North Melbourne area.,' a V/Line spokesperson said.
'Some train services on V/Line's three busiest lines were still able to depart from platforms 15 and 16 at Southern Cross, while coaches were also used to transport some passengers to their destination.'
The problem was fixed by 7pm, V/Line says.
But it's more bad news for a public transport network that has faced more than its share of criticism in recent years.
Felgate called the system 'shamefully archaic' and a 'third world service' last month after callers to the AM station voiced their frustration at cancellations and trains so crowded they are forced to sit on the floor.
So what's going on? Why, in 2025, is Victoria's public transport network struggling to cope?
Daniel Bowen from Victoria's Public Transport Users Association told news.com.au that crowding 'is now a regular occurrence on V/Line services throughout the week'.
'Disruptions, either due to planned works or unplanned incidents such as animal strikes, aren't helping,' he said.
'Ultimately the government must continue to invest in more capacity and reliability for V/Line, to ensure that the train service keeps up with patronage growth.'
V/Line acting CEO Warwick Horsley apologised to commuters in May, explaining that one 'huge factor' was the sheer numbers of kangaroos in the country being struck by trains.
'It's a huge factor at the moment, we're seeing three times as many kangaroo strikes in the regions … so what we've chosen to do, is rather than cancel trains, is try to run every single train where we can,' he said.
That often means removing damaged carriages to keep the service moving. Less carriages means less seats but the same number of commuters.
Another factor, Mr Bowen says, is a reduction in the price of fares to the regions, introduced in the middle of 2023.
V/Line recently reduced fares to match Metropolitan services. The result, which he has seen first-hand, is that commuters are forced to sit on the floor with their bags due to overcrowding.
'While it's good to see more people using the trains, the capacity is not keeping up on some services, with passengers regularly having to stand, sometimes for long distances,' he said.
'On some lines such as Albury, the trains are booked out well in advance, making it difficult to use the service at short notice.'
To put the swell of new commuters into context, V/Line data shows there was an increase of 45 per cent year on year after the new fares were introduced.
The Guardian reports there were an additional 1.5 million trips on V/Line services between the start of April and the end of June in 2023, compared to the same period the year before.
'Crush conditions' warning
Commuters travelling to Melbourne's north and west will face 'crush' conditions without an overhaul of the network, The Age reported last week.
Citing a secret government report, the publication foreshadowed stranded commuters on platforms within the next five to 10 years if big changes aren't made.
'Due to significant population growth in the north and west of Melbourne – more than twice the population of Canberra is forecast to move into this region in the next 15 years – there is an urgent need to begin detailed development of rail capacity-boosting projects in the north and west,' a letter from then Department of Transport secretary Paul Younis to his Commonwealth counterpart reads.
Sarah, a regular V/Line commuter from Metung, told 3AW in May that train travel across the network was 'really, really painful'.
'There are pretty much three trains a day if you are lucky. It's pot luck if you'll get a train. Sometimes you'll get a coach which is really, really bad in the fact that it can't stop at Flinders Street Station.
'It's absolutely deplorable. You feel like you're in a third world country. They're trying to encourage people to live regionally and in theory that's great, but they need the infrastructure to allow people to do that in the first place.
'We're alleviating in some way the housing crisis in Melbourne. (Many) often need to commute into the city on a regular basis. We're spending a fortune on fuel. When really we should be spending $10 to get into the city — when (the trains) run.'
The V/Line spokesperson said the operator was 'closely monitoring patronage across the network following the introduction of the regional fare cap and is running more services than ever before to meet demand'.
'This includes more than 130 services added to the timetable over the past two years, including on the Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and Albury lines.
'V/Line is also continuing to roll out more modern, reliable and accessible VLocity trains, with 131 already in service and more being progressively added as they roll off the production line.'
The spokesperson said the 12-month network average for reliability was 97.6 per cent, exceeding the 96 per cent target.
'V/Line has reached its reliability target across the network for 17 consecutive months to the end of May 2025.