Warrnambool line capacity

For years, the Warrnambool line had just three trains per day in each direction on weekends.

In December 2024 it moved to four.

From April it will be five, and they’ll also complete the switch from locomotive-hauled N sets to VLocities.

Given concerns about shorter trains, how does this affect overall capacity?

N sets are normally 5 cars, with the exact capacity varying a bit, but a typical consist includes carriages of type ACN (first class and conductor compartment), BRN (including snack bar), and three N or Z class cars, as well as a power/luggage van.

This provides a passenger capacity of 52 + 81 + 88 x 3 = 397 seats.

Correction:
This provides a passenger capacity of 52 + 67 + 88 x 3 = 383 seats… and likely to be slighty less, because normally at least one car with wheelchair spaces is included, reducing total seats by about 12.
(Source)

I’ve heard there are regular problems with the N sets… so much so that they have usually restricted reserved seating to just three cars out of the five. Normally it would be all but one car, but it’s two due to so frequently having to leave one of them behind due to faults.

So the actual capacity on some services, where one car is left behind, may be as low as about 300.

But assuming all goes to plan, daily capacity with three N class trains per day is about 1,191 1,149 (or slightly less).

VLocity trains on the Warrnambool line run as 3 cars, with a capacity of 222 per set, assuming it’s a standard VL set, not one of the handful of higher capacity VR sets.

Five 3 car VLocity trains per day = 1,110.

On that basis, it’s a reduction of 4% from normal N set capacity (as well as the loss of catering and checked luggage space), but slightly higher than when any of the N sets have problems.

Can they run longer trains? Not easily. VLocity trains only run in multiples of 3 cars.

And generally you want platforms long enough to handle each train (though there are some exceptions). Many of the platforms on the Warrnambool line are not long enough to handle 6 cars – though extending them should theoretically not be too complex.

But in terms of overall capacity, there’s another factor.

Stopping patterns

Until recently, most weekend Warrnambool trains stopped at numerous stations to and through Geelong, including the very busy Melbourne suburban stations at Tarneit and Wyndham Vale.

In true V/Line fashion, the stopping patterns were a bit messy. The 2019 timetable shows the three outbound trains on Saturdays and Sundays each had a unique stopping pattern.

Now almost all Warrmabool trains run express from Footscray to Geelong to Waurn Ponds (which is the last stop in suburban Geelong) and vice versa – with the exception of the evening train into Melbourne on weekends.

This means a faster trip. The weekend morning service currently gets to Warrnambool in 3 hours 15 minutes; that’s 32 minutes faster than it did in 2019.

This is possible now thanks to more Geelong line services, so the Warrnambool trains don’t have to fill so many gaps.

In terms of capacity, while the overall Warrnambool train capacity is lower, serving fewer stops should mean the demand on these trains is lower as well. Most short hop passengers have shifted to other services. It has also meant it’s easier to declare all Warrnambool services to be fully reserved.

Countering that is patronage growth following the 2023 fare cut, and the fact that the greater convenience of more services is likely to lead to increasing demand.

They’ll need to monitor carefully what happens next, and plan the next upgrade.

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Update: BRN carriage capacity and total N class capacity corrected. Thanks David.

Opening para also revised to emphasise that most of the post is talking about weekends.