A quick trip to Ballarat on Sunday to visit the gallery. Train seemed the most convenient way to get there.
You can’t tell from the usual timetables, but the Network Service Plan includes information on what type of train should run each service (the “consist” in railway jargon).
It says that the Sunday 10:14 to Ballarat/Wendouree is scheduled to run as a 6 car VLocity set (“2x 3VL”). But on our trip, it ran as only 3 cars.
Predictably, it was crowded. In the vicinity of where we were standing, at least five people were sitting on the floor or on their bags, and many more were standing.
This is not good. It’s a poor experience for people making long distance trips. It’s likely to put people off using the service again. It means an artificial cap on patronage.
On this occasion there was probably a reason for the short train. But they should be trying harder to make sure it doesn’t happen.
I’d note that it’s worse on the Bendigo line, where the weekend hourly services are mostly scheduled to run as short trains, so crowding is a regular occurrence.
We eventually got seats at Melton, half an hour into the trip.
But there was worse to come.
The train an hour earlier, the 9:14, terminated at Bacchus Marsh due to a lineside fire up ahead. By time we arrived, the fire was out, so we could proceed.
But the load off the earlier train squeezed into ours.
It was packed. Older passengers were offered seats, but the result was a very squashy ride for a lot of people for about 45 minutes. And I’d assume some passengers who had already been on our train had to stand (or sit on the floor) all the way from Southern Cross to Ballarat.
One can’t blame V/Line for the fire. But the 3 car train couldn’t provide enough seats for its regular load, let alone all the disrupted passengers from the previous service. A 6 car train would have coped much better.
In coming years the Ballarat line is expected to be upgraded to run every 40 minutes on weekends (it already does on weekdays). This should help. But assuming patronage keeps growing they’ll need to ensure full length trains run as often as possible.
The broader theme is that – thanks to more people working from home and the fare cap ($10.60 on weekdays, $7.20 on weekends) patronage growth is concentrated on leisure travel, not commuting. Weekends and evenings, not weekday peaks.
This trend is likely to continue. Timetable planning and resourcing needs to take that into account.
Soggy ‘rat
It was raining in Ballarat when the train arrived.
But that’s fine because we must have waited about 15 minutes to pay for a soft drink at what might be the slowest station cafe in Victoria (the only drink vending machine we could find was out of service) and by the time we came out the rain had stopped.
We walked to the art gallery, only about five minutes from the station.
Let me just say, the Art Gallery of Ballarat is terrific. Some great 20th century paintings from Clarice Beckett, and some really eye-popping modern stuff from Jxsh Mvir – an indigenous artist who is sadly no longer with us. And plenty of others, mostly free.
Lunch was at a rather good Mexican place around the corner recommended by a friend.
I had been keeping an eye on the V/Line app.
The 14:20 train back was showing as just 3 cars. The Network Service Plan indicates it’s the same set as the one we caught up.
Better not to rush for that. We aimed for the 15:20 instead.
That allowed some time to walk around, down Sturt Street, and look in the (surprisingly capacious) book shop on Lydiard Street.
Then back to the station.
And the train trip back, with 6 cars as scheduled, was busy but not overcrowded. Basically uneventful. Relaxing even.
Which is just the way it should be.
