“Regular V/Line travellers have been reporting overcrowding on some services since well before the fare-free period began.”

“The south-western Victorian paper the Standard has reported on increased overcrowding on the Warrnambool service, including the need for coaches to accommodate overflow since V/Line switched from using N-type carriages to VLocity trains on the route in 2024. The new trains were too long for some platforms, resulting in trains running with three carriages instead of six.”

“The state MP for Polwarth, the Liberal party’s Richard Riordan, raised the issue of overcrowding in parliament on 4 March, saying: ‘On every single train service in western Victoria people are standing for two or three hours – as long as the train does not break down or come to grief along the journey, which could extend it to four or five hours standing.’”

“The community advocacy group the Public Transport User Association has raised concerns about the regional public transport system struggling to keep up with demand, and shared photos of people standing in the aisles on the Warrnambool train on its Facebook page on Saturday.”

“Government passenger data from the 2024-25 financial year shows the Geelong and Ballarat lines had the highest number of passengers, with more than 3.8 million people transiting through just three stations on the Geelong line alone.”