V/Line

On 1 July 1983, the State Transport Authority and a range of other transport bodies were created, when the Transport Act 1983 came into effect.[2] The new authority replaced VicRail, and established the V/Line operating brand for both country passenger and freight. The VicRail orange and silver "teacup' livery used on passenger rolling stock was replaced in August 1983 by an orange and grey livery. The white and green V/Line logo was launched on Sunday 21 August 1983 by the transport minister, Steve Crabb, at Spencer Street station, with special trains running to Essendon to mark the occasion.[3][4] This was altered when on 1 July 1989 the Transport (Amendment) Act took effect, merging the State Transport Authority with the Metropolitan Transit Authority to form the Public Transport Corporation (PTC).[5] The relationship between the country V/Line and suburban "The Met" brands was blurred, with the Sprinter trains delivered in the 1993–1995 period appearing in PTC colours but with both PTC and V/Line logos.[6]

On 30 April 1984, the first V/Line country coach service commenced with a daily Melbourne to Mildura service being introduced, replacing services formerly operated by Ansett Pioneer and Holidaymakers of Mildura. It was operated under contract by Holidaymakers and Mildura Bus Lines.[7] On 2 December 1984, the Speedlink service was introduced. This involved a road coach operating from Adelaide via Albury where it connected with the State Rail Authority's Riverina XPT to Sydney.[8][9]

Other new coach services introduced were Warrnambool to Mount Gambier on 19 November 1984, Lang Lang to Inverloch on 9 December 1984, Warrnambool to Ballarat on 3 June 1985, Albury to Mildura and Dandenong to Cowes both on 2 September 1985, and Cobram to Shepparton and Melbourne to Shepparton both on 27 October 1985.[10]

On 27 April 1987, the Canberra Link service commenced. A Mylon Motorways coach for Canberra connected with a train service from Melbourne at Wodonga.[11][12] On the same date a service commenced from Mildura to Broken Hill, connecting off The Sunraysia.[13]

On 1 July 1994, the operation of some of V/Line's regional passenger services was contracted out to the private sector. Hoys Roadlines took over the Melbourne to Cobram service with trains operated under contract by V/Line to Shepparton with Hoys operating a road coach service beyond.[14] The service from Melbourne to Warrnambool was operated by West Coast Railway who operated their own trains throughout.[15][16] Both of these returned to being operated by V/Line in 2004.

Rail services to Leongatha ceased on 24 July 1993, Bairnsdale, Cobram and Dimboola on 21 August 1993, Ararat on 27 May 1994 and Mildura on 13 September 1994.[17][18]

In 1995, the freight and passenger rail divisions of V/Line were divided, with a new red, blue and white V/Line Passenger livery unveiled.[19] This split was finalised on 1 July 1997 when separate management was brought in.[20] On 1 July 1998, operation of the Stony Point line passed to Bayside Trains. V/Line continues to hire rolling stock to Metro Trains Melbourne to operate the service.[21][22]

Melbourne Yard West Tower 2021

V/Line Freight was sold to a consortium of RailAmerica, Fluor Daniel, Macquarie Bank and A Goninan & Co and rebranded as Freight Victoria effective from 1 May 1999.[23][24][25] The sale included a 45-year lease of most regional track (passenger and freight), with responsibilities for track, signalling and level crossings, with access to passenger sections of track granted to V/Line Passenger.[26] The state government had not wanted to sell rights to the track infrastructure, but was persuaded by bids by three primarily American consortia which argued greater efficiencies could be accomplished by vertical integration.[27]

After being renamed Freight Australia in March 2000, it was sold to Pacific National in August 2004.[28][29] In May 2007 Pacific National sold the rail lease of the network back to VicTrack.[30]

On 29 August 1999, National Express took control of V/Line Passenger, having won a 10-year concession in competition with FirstGroup, Freight Victoria, GB Railways, Prism Rail and Stagecoach.[31] National Express also operated the M>Tram and M>Train franchises in Melbourne.[32][33][34] It included all country rail operations in Victoria, with the exception of the Shepparton and Warrnambool services previously franchised in 1993.[35]

National Express inherited a fleet of A, N, P and Y class locomotives, H, N, S and Z type carriages and Sprinter diesel multiple units. As a franchise commitment, 29 two-car VLocitys were ordered from Bombardier.[36]

In December 2002, National Express handed in its Victorian rail and tram franchises having been unable to renegotiate financial terms with the State Government.[37][38][39][40] KPMG were appointed to operate the business on behalf of the State Government.[41][42][43]

Patronage of V/Line rail services 2004–19

Full control of V/Line was taken on 1 October 2003 by changing the shareholding of V/Line, making the government the sole shareholder via a recently created statutory corporation, V/Line Passenger Corporation.[44][45] V/Line operates under a franchise agreement entered into with the Director of Public Transport. The Director also sub leases tracks and other infrastructure which the Director holds under lease from VicTrack, the agency which owns Victoria's rail-related land and infrastructure.

In 2000, the Regional Fast Rail project was launched to upgrade the tracks linking Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and the Latrobe Valley to Melbourne. The project, which also included an extra 10 Vlocitys and an expanded timetable of rail services, commenced full operations from December 2005.[46]

The services to Bairnsdale and Ararat were restored in May and July 2004 respectively.[45][47][48] In December 2008, as part of the Victorian Transport Plan, the state government announced that V/Line rail passenger services would be extended from Ballarat to Maryborough at a cost of $50 million, commencing in July 2010.[49][50] The first passenger train in 15 years arrived at Maryborough on 24 July 2010.[51] V/Line also resumed operating the Shepparton and Warrnambool services in 2004 when contacts with Hoys Roadliners and West Coast Railway expired.[52]

In November 2006 Pacific National, which had purchased Freight Australia, entered into an agreement to sell the remainder of its Victorian rail lease of the network back to VicTrack.[30] The sale was completed on 7 May 2007, with V/Line becoming the track manager of the Victorian intrastate network.[53]

In May 2008 it was announced that part of the V/Line fleet would be converted to standard gauge to operate an upgraded Albury line service.[54] In December 2008 V/Line ended the sale of alcoholic beverages aboard long-distance trains, after almost a century of the practice.[55]

In 2015/16, the subsidy per passenger trip was $22.12.[56]

The Transport Integration Act 2010 renamed the V/Line Passenger Corporation as V/Line Corporation.[57] The Act also gave V/Line a new statutory charter. As part of these changes, the corporation's responsibilities were explicitly expanded to cover both rail passenger and rail freight services.[58] The Act received the Royal assent on 2 March 2010 and came into effect on 1 July 2010.[59]

Map of the Regional Rail Link corridor through Melbourne's west, which opened in 2015.

In the late 2010s and early 2020s, the V/Line network underwent one of the largest periods of expansion and upgrade in its history. In 2009, work began on the Regional Rail Link, a 47.5-kilometre new double-track railway through Melbourne's western suburbs designed to separate V/Line and Metro trains and create a new corridor for Geelong corridor trains.[60] Largely funded by the federal Rudd Government in 2009, the project was originally budgeted at $4.32 billion but had a final cost of $3.65 billion.[60][61] When it opened in 2015, the Deer Park–West Werribee railway line added new V/Line stations in Melbourne's west at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale, enabling higher frequencies and expanding V/Line's role as a commuter railway service.[62]

Patronage had been steadily increasing on the V/Line network, growing by 83% between 2006/07 and 2015/16, from 8.9 million to 16.3 million.[60] The Victorian Auditor General found that by 2017 the Regional Rail Link had led to an 80% increase in patronage on the Geelong line.[63][60]

A VLocity train at Wyndham Vale station in Melbourne's west, which opened in 2015 as part of the Regional Rail Link.

In January 2016, V/Line's VLocity rolling stock was identified as suffering from abnormal wheel wear.[64] The fleet was also banned from the metropolitan track lease by the suburban rail operator, Metro Trains Melbourne, after a V/Line train failed to activate a level crossing in Dandenong.[65][66] The two problems caused as many as 70 services a day to be cancelled.[67] They also led to the resignation of then CEO Theo Taifalos, 16 days free travel being provided to passengers, and an independent inquiry being ordered by the public transport minister, Jacinta Allan, into the operational capacity of V/Line.[67][68] It was later identified that the wheel wear was caused by harsh curves in track segments, particularly along the Dynon-North Melbourne flyover, which was rebuilt as part of the Regional Rail Link.[69] As a result, the flyover track segment was replaced, and permanent 30 km/h speed restrictions were introduced from the flyover to South Kensington.[69]

In 2017, the State Government under Premier Daniel Andrews initiated work on the Regional Rail Revival program, a $4 billion project to upgrade Victoria's regional railways and provide more reliable and frequent passenger services.[70][71] The program was co-funded by the Federal Government, through the Commonwealth's asset-recycling fund.[72] The project reflected the upgrades outlined in the 2016 Regional Network Development Plan.[73]

Regional Rail Revival upgrades at Waurn Ponds station near Geelong during construction, April 2022.

The project involved upgrades to all of the state's regional rail corridors. The project allocated $518 million for upgrades to the Ballarat line, including 18 km of duplicated track between Deer Park West and Melton stations, new passing loops, new train stabling, upgraded stations and more car parking along the corridor.[74] A new platform and track was added to Waurn Ponds station on the Geelong line and a rail line to Armstrong Creek was investigated.[75] The Gippsland line will have its signalling upgraded, some track duplicated, a new stabling facility built and platforms added to some stations.[70] The North East, Shepparton and Warrnambool lines were upgraded to allow VLocity trains to run on those corridors.[70][76][77]

The project will also include track speed and signalling upgrades to the Bendigo-Echuca line.[78] Secondary stages of upgrades were launched on many lines, allowing more services to be added.[71] A new rail bridge was built over the Avon River in Gippsland as part of the project.[79] New stations were built at Goornong, Huntly and Raywood on the Bendigo line as part of the Bendigo Metro project, which aimed to improve the commuter service for greater Bendigo.[80] A new Cobblebank station east of Melton was opened in 2019.

Over this time the VLocity became the primary rollingstock servicing the V/Line network, with 105 three-car sets in service as of 2023. VLocity trains were introduced to a standard gauge line for the first time in July 2022 after upgrades to the Seymour and Albury lines as part of the Regional Rail Revival.[81] During the 2022 state election, the Andrews government promised to purchase a further 23 three-car sets for the network.[82] The government also announced new stations for the Regional Rail Link at Truganina and Tarneit West, and the removal of four more level crossings on the Ballarat line around Melton, which would make the line level-crossing free between the city and Melton.[83][84]

On 1 July 2021, V/Line transitioned from a state-owned corporation to a statutory authority.[85]

During the 2022 state election, the Victorian government promised to cap all V/Line fares to $9.20 for daily travel and $4.60 for concession card holders, regardless of distance travelled.[96][97] This would make V/Line fares cost the same as a daily fare for travel with Metropolitan Melbourne, and represented the largest cut in fares in the system's history.[96] A daily peak fare from Bendigo would be cut from $68.80 to $9.20, while Ballarat would be cut from $45.60 and Geelong from $27.60.[98] An overnight trip to Swan Hill would be cut from a total cost of $92 to $18.40, as it requires two daily fares.[82]

In early 2023, the state government announced the changes would take effect on 31 March 2023.[94] Concerns were raised by public transport advocates that the system would struggle to cope with the expected increase in patronage from the fare cap, particularly during off-peak times and weekends.[82] During the election the government promised an extra 23 new VLocity trains and an increase in weekend V/Line frequencies, but these were not expected until 2024.[82] In the first week of the new fare system, the V/Line network carried 420,000 passengers.[99]

V/Line liveried coach

Road coaches are provided by 23 private companies including BusBiz, Dineen Group, Donric Group, Dysons, Firefly Express, Mee's Bus Lines, Panorama Coaches and Ventura Bus Lines, which are contracted by Public Transport Victoria to operate services for V/Line. These coaches are painted in V/Line livery.[100][101]