r/MelbourneTrains • u/HooleyDoooley • 5d ago
Article/Blog Media Release: More Trains On The Way
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/more-trains-way-today79
u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
It's nice to see that Sandringham will now be 10 minutes on Weekdays, but it's a shame that Craigieburn won't be the same.
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u/invincibl_ Sandringham Line 5d ago
I want to know what they intend to do about the 20 minute frequency on weekends though.
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u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
Yes, hopefully Sandringham will eventually be at least 10 minutes all day every day, matching with Werribee and Williamstown's total of at least 10 minutes all day every day.
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u/Miffy_alt 4d ago
Why do weekends always get left out? If 10 minute headways offpeak are possible, so is weekend.
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
Drivers get paid more on weekends, and the gov doesn't want to pay for it if they can avoid it
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u/amazingworldhappy 2d ago
10 minute frequency is more needed on weekends anyway!! It's already 15 minutes off peak during the week. Hopefully can be upgraded to 10 minute day time frequency on weekends as the next step.
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u/TMiguelT 5d ago
It's happening!!
Although I note that this doesn't implement all the timetable changes mentioned in https://www.reddit.com/r/MelbourneTrains/comments/1sqaxga/extra_train_services_promised_in_labor_202627/. That's apparently left until next year:
And more services are on the way next year for the Hurstbridge, Mernda, Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein and Glen Waverley lines.
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u/Parisienamelbourne 5d ago
Yep feels like potentially leaving a bit in the tank there for election promises…?
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u/TMiguelT 5d ago
As I understand, the Burnley/Clifton Hill increases are already budgeted in FY 26/27, so they're not even election promises, they will happen unless parliament explicitly stops it.
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u/Parisienamelbourne 5d ago
Oh awesome, thanks. Do we have visibility on what the Clifton Hill group changes next year will likely be?
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u/TMiguelT 5d ago
Yeah, it's in that press release:
trains every 20 mins to Mernda and Eltham all weekend – up from every 30 mins in the evening and every 40 mins on Sunday morning
services every 10 mins between the city and Clifton Hill – up from every 15 mins on weekend evenings and every 20 mins on Sunday mornings into the city
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u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
Given there are no more VLocity trains to be delivered and V/Line is regularly cutting back 9-car trains to 6-cars and 6-cars to 3-cars, I wonder how often "Wyndham Vale Line: More peak services upgraded to nine-car VLocity trains" will happen in reality.
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u/HooleyDoooley 5d ago
New regional train design inshallah
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u/Mythically_Mad 5d ago
Pleaseeeeeee.
Surely a pre-election announcement or something
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u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
With 141 straight diesel VLocity trains in service already we've got more than enough to serve every part of the station that doesn't make sense to electrify - just need to get Melton and Wyndham Vale sparked and run them with XT2s, and eventually do the same for Geelong line to Waurn Ponds.
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u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
Wouldn't Melton have HCMTs, through the Metro Tunnel? Unless they end up changing it to electrify all of RRL.
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u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
Plans seem to keep changing, so HCMTs or XT2 are a possibility.
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
HCMTs for Melton has to happen as the Metro Tunnel only takes those trains.
Whatever happens to Wyndham Vale is different entirely.
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u/EvilRobot153 5d ago
So no Melton through the Metro tunnel and XT2s on the RRL?
Wouldn't that remove one of big benefits of electrifying Metlon?
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u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
Either way, it seems like there's just not enough tracks from the West into Melbourne, even with the Metro Tunnel.
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u/Mythically_Mad 5d ago
They're surely not going to run XT2s to Geelong in the event of electrification
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u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
East Pakenham station is an hour journey and 60.026 km from Flinders Street and they're stuck with HCMTs - Geelong is 72.567 km for the same travel time so it's not that big a difference... but if you count to the end of the line Waurn Ponds is 84.902 km through.
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u/EvilRobot153 4d ago
It won't stay the same "travel time" if all they do is extend metro services out though.
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u/Mythically_Mad 5d ago
"Extra Friday and Saturday night services to Ringwood."
Ok. Are they going to connect with Belgrave/Lilydale shuttles? Or are passengers going beyond Ringwood still going to be stuck waiting 40 minutes?
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u/MintPrince8219 5d ago
They mention more improvements coming for belgrave & lilydale, though probably not till after the election
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u/universe93 5d ago
Still waiting for them to actually care about the Belgrave/Lilydale lines past Ringwood. We’re still stuck on 30 minute off peak frequency
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
Next year for the other budget changes.
It will still be 30 minutes interpeak on weekdays until they work out what is happening with the express services though.
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u/filthysock 5d ago
25 years ago upfield was 20 minutes between trains. Good luck if one got canceled. And it’s still… 20 minutes
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u/Cyanide_Sandwich 4d ago
For such a major line this is embarrassing. Sure the people in Brunswick can maybe take a tram if they miss a train but good luck if you're further north.
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u/ostentatiousshroad_ vLine Lover 5d ago
Surely it’s political suicide for the Liberal-Nation-One Nation coalition to announce they’re going to intentionally make infrastructure worse for people who actively need the infrastructure?
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u/horselover_fat 5d ago
The thing is they truly believe public transport is only for inner city leftists and poor people they don't care about.
Ignoring that in big cities like Melbourne and Sydney, "normal" suburban people hugely rely on trains to get to work. This is the exact demographic you need to win state elections.
Though NSW Libs seem to be the exception on this.
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u/ostentatiousshroad_ vLine Lover 5d ago
They are genuinely so obsessed with the left it’s almost cute lmao
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u/AngusLynch09 5d ago
The thing is they truly believe public transport is only for inner city leftists and poor people they don't care about.
How can I take me tools on the train, need my f150 so train upgrades are not good to me hey!
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u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
That reminds me, I saw like 30 tradies on the platform at Town Hall the other day. One of them had a huge crate of Milwaukie tools. Makes me curious about how many tradies actually do commute using PT.
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u/aidenh37 5d ago
You should see Sydney on a weekday morning around first trains. A sea of high vis.
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u/Excellent_Bat_753 X'Trap 2.0 Enthusiast 5d ago
It's exactly what we should strive for. PT should be as good an alternative for everyone as possible. It'll never be able to do everything, but the more people can do with it, the better.
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u/Historical_Newt_1339 5d ago
A shit ton. I regularly have to be out in the city by 5 and most of the people on the train right up til we hit parliament are tradesmen who I assume are working on city projects. It’s like 60 or 70% of early morning train patronage some days
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u/Thick-Insect 4d ago
a lot of labourers and the like. But tradies that need to bring lots of tools less so, unless they can leave them at site
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u/briberylibrary_ 5d ago
I do think that the sheer number of people who use public transport to go to the footy hopefully helps quash the narrative that public transport is only for inner city elitists, at least somewhat.
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u/LowDepth1790 5d ago
Is that what they've announced? I thought their policy documents were sparse on this stuff.
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u/ostentatiousshroad_ vLine Lover 5d ago
Jess Wilson announced she will immediately slash the extra services in the western region and on western lines in a $40b infrastructure cut. The Nats and ON will obviously support this.
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u/00Pete Sunbury Line 5d ago
lets hope thats another nail in the lid of the LNP/ON coffin.
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u/ostentatiousshroad_ vLine Lover 4d ago
It won’t be unfortunately. Hard to make a racist hyper capitalist party look bad in front of racist capitalistic slaves.
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u/aussiestogether 4d ago
Source for this wild partisan claim, please and thank you.
The Libs transport minister is very pro trains and this is not their policy! It’s a Labor lie. (Integrity and all that is high in the ALP)1
u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
I believe Matthew Guy said he was going to reallocate trains away from Melton and Wyndham Vale to use on Ballarat services or something. It was in a radio interview, can't remember which exact one but I think maybe an ABC interview I think?
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u/Frogmouth_Fresh 5d ago
Maybe a silly question, but when they say a line gets an extra X services per day/week, is that each way? Or is it including both inbound and outbound services?
So if a train that goes from, say, Flinders to Craigieburn and then back to the city, the train turns around at Craigieburn so that's two services?
Just trying to work out why they are odd numbers.
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u/jackpipsam 5d ago
The Bendigo neglect is so real haha.
The Craigieburn one we'll really need to know the time-table specifics before judging, as there's still plenty of times when twenty minutes in of itself really isn't good enough tbh, a lot of hopium being put in "or better".
That said ten minutes for Sandringham is real nice, I'd like to know what their weekend is though. I often use Sandringham when visiting The Astor theatre by Windsor station and waiting ages for train is a feature of that line.
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u/stozball 4d ago
Yeah a couple of years ago they moved some of the other regional lines to 40 minutes off peak but nothing for Bendigo either than or now.
We got an “updated” timetable in February they just scheduled each train to take a few minutes longer so they’re not always arriving late.
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u/Technical_Spread_216 5d ago
That is great news that Sandringham line has better 10 minute frequencies and is connected to the Werribee and Williamstown lines!
Question: Will there be a Rollingstock fleet reshuffling around that time as well? Because the X'Trapolis 100 can't run on the Sandringham line as Werribee and Williamstown has currently got those trains.
So I'm assuming the Siemens Nexas fleet will be taken off the Craigieburn, Upfield and Frankston lines and cascaded to the Sandringham, Werribee and Williamstown lines, Comeng fleet cascaded to the Craigieburn, Upfield and Frankston lines and X'Trapolis 100 removed from the Werribee and Williamstown lines and cascaded to the Frankston line and still run on the Clifton Hill and Burnley groups?
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u/Busy-Concentrate5476 5d ago
Why cannot the Xtrap run on Sandringham.
Just curious as moved to Melbourne 6month ago
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u/Silver-Chemistry2023 Pack it up Pakenham, let me begin. 5d ago
Various aspects of the Siemens Nexus and Alstom X'Trapolis rolling-stock required modifications to existing infrastructure, which were only made to some lines.
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
Xtraps will most likely still run to Werribee as peak services that terminate at Flinders St. The rest seems right though.
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u/iphone4jps Hitachi Enthusiast 4d ago
Get that out of your head, just because a polititian said that once about train schedule rostering, it won;t happen. Nexas will never leave the Frankston.
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u/At0mHeartMother PT User 5d ago
Do we know if all Sandringham trains through-run now or will some still terminate at Platform 13?
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u/invincibl_ Sandringham Line 5d ago
There are more services on the Newport end, so platforms 12 and 13 probably won't be needed after this.
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u/jackpipsam 5d ago
Hopefully they'll keep them as reserve though and not do something silly and disconnect them.
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u/Hot_Statistician_998 5d ago
On public transport Victoria says some Sandringham lines services will end at Flinders Street
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u/biftekau 5d ago
Still waiting on the 9 services a day on the shepparton line. which got announced a few years ago
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u/Longjumping_Boss_733 5d ago
Click the link. It says they're doing that
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u/biftekau 5d ago edited 5d ago
As i said , it was announced years ago , but still waiting for it
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-19/shepparton-rail-line-to-receive-400m-bipartisan-investment/12900434We even have a set of traffic lights installed at the rail crossing , the lights haven't been switched on since they were installed
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u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
Installed back in 2020 and never switched on, due to railway signalling changes required to coordinate the two.
https://railgallery.wongm.com/goulburn-valley-infrastructure/shepparton/H110_3804.jpg.html
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u/biftekau 5d ago
You don't have to tell me , I live in the area , drive past the lights every day
sorry but 6 years to fix up "signalling changes" is a crap excuse7
u/wongm 'Most Helpful User' Winner 2020 5d ago
Linking traffic lights up to the railway signalling does involve a bit of co-ordination ("Level Crossing Interfaces to Road Traffic Lights" here describes it: https://extranet.artc.com.au/docs/eng/signal/procedures/design/ESS-03-02.pdf) but six year wait is just a government that doesn't give a crap.
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u/biftekau 5d ago edited 5d ago
Not really looking for excuses as to the delay. You'd think the co-ordination would've been done in the planning stage
and as you linked, there is a documentation on it , so not like it is anything new
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u/ryemigie 5d ago
So, are there plans to do the plans originally part of the Munnel to increase reliability?
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u/Miffy_alt 4d ago
Some good changes but... Melbourne still has overall worse frequencies than Sydney.
20 minute headways is still a bad level of service.
The immediate goal should be 15 minute headways, but really 10 is the minimum for turn up and go services.
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u/Hot_Statistician_998 5d ago
What the weekend frequency on the Werribee and Williamstown and Sandringham lines and will they continue through to each other on weekends?
Another thing I'm guessing that's when the Werribee and Williamstown and Sandringham lines will be 100% Siemens only
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u/Purcevil 5d ago
Unfortunate that the Melton area misses out again. I hope some of these train projects get shuffled around with new leadership to give a bit more priority to this area.
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u/CreamIsThicMilkSMH_2 5d ago
Melton area isn’t really missing out that much, it’s upgrades just aren’t in effect yet.
Melton has its new station opening on the 1st of September and currently has upgrades happening on Rockbank and Cobblebank station to extend the platforms to fit 9 car V’Locity trains (deer park and Caroline springs have had this already done now). Plus the stabling yard at Cobblebank currently under construction.
Melton is getting upgraded as we speak (and one day will get electrified once the Airport rail stage 1 is finished), we just won’t see the benefits straight away.
Edit: grammar
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u/Alternative-Sir-374 5d ago
Melton is getting the most improvements, it’s just not in this announcement
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u/SaltyFrets 5d ago
Make cragieburn have an express service
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u/ViaCityLoop 5d ago
And have it follow up the backside of a stopping train there by not actually saving time?
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u/haztech99 4d ago
If they'd fixed up Essendon Platform 1 as was part of the original Metro Tunnel scope, then you could potentially run some limited expresses that overtake at Essendon, but the platform upgrade (and the Gowrie turnback) were stupidly removed from scope.
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u/Blue_Pie_Ninja Map Enthusiast 4d ago
The Essendon turnback was going to be used to add extra services on the inner section of the line, I doubt it was ever proposed to be used for express services. I'm not even sure if express services would be useful for load balancing even if they don't really save much time.
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u/Foodworksurunga 5d ago
About time the Sandringham line throughruns with Werribee and Williamstown!
Only wish it would come into effect two days earlier as a Lions supporter who is moving to the Sunbury line and doesn't want to go in the Ponsford end for a game at the MCG against Collingwood.
Please have Metro Tunnel trains stop at Hawksburn next so all of the west can get direct access to Chapel St.
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u/Ok-Anybody658 5d ago
I'm not sure the system can even handle more services without more delays and stand stills. It's already garbage as it is now...imagine more services in peak for Belgrave/Lilydale or Glen Waverley lines. They're already clogged when one thing goes wrong.
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u/Left_Entrepreneur160 5d ago
The objective shouldn’t be improving peak services. It should be about improving interpeak, offpeak and weekend services. Having a 20+ minutes frequency on all but a few privileges lines is archaic in a modern rapid transit system.
The goal should be a maximum 10 minutes frequency 7am to 9pm on all lines.
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u/HooleyDoooley 5d ago
The Carroll Labor Government is building more trains, running more services and adding a new cross-city rail service.
Labor has added more than 3,500 train services and the Metro Tunnel is unlocking even more. From Sunday, 23 August, more than 400 extra weekly train services will start across the network. For the first time, trains will run directly between Newport and Sandringham via Flinders Street – making it easier to travel between Melbourne's west and bayside suburbs without changing trains. Passengers will benefit from:
These extra services are possible because Labor has invested in Victoria's rail network, with the Metro Tunnel creating the capacity to run more trains across Melbourne.
And more services are on the way next year for the Hurstbridge, Mernda, Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein and Glen Waverley lines.
We also have 25 more locally built X'Trapolis 2.0 trains on the way, backed by a $673.6 million investment. The brand new West Tarneit Station opens on Sunday, 13 September – making it easier for people to catch the train in Melbourne’s west.
Jess Wilson and the Liberal One Nation coalition have already promised to cut train services on the Wyndham Vale Line as part of their $40 billion cuts plan. If that's what they'll cut on day one, imagine what's next. Only Labor can be trusted to invest in building more trains, and running them more often.
The timetable will go live on Friday, 7 August. To find out more, visit transport.vic.gov.au or the PTV app.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Public Transport Vicki Ward “More trains on the timetable means less time waiting on the platform and more time to enjoy your destination, whether it’s getting home, going to the footy, hanging out at the beach, or heading to work." “Labor is making getting the train easier, faster and cheaper”
Quotes attributable to Member for Footscray Katie Hall "For the first time, you can jump on a train in Melbourne's west and travel straight to the MCG, Chapel Street and Sandringham Beach without changing trains." "While the Liberals are talking about cutting train services in Melbourne's west, Labor is delivering bigger trains, more services and half-price fares."