Cheaper travel to and from Melbourne

Stefan BRADLEY

CAPPED V/Line fares will allow Gippsland residents and visitors acheaper ride toand-fromMelbourne and around the state when they come into effect on March 31.

Premier Daniel Andrews also confirmed that Victoria’spublic transport ticketing system would likelybeoverhauledthis year to allow patrons to access services with a creditcardorsmartphone, rather than relying on aMyki card.

Labor took the cheaper V/Line fares policy to the November state election, which also included extra weekend V/Line services.

The cappedfee means the maximumadult full-fareonV/Line will cost no morethan $9.80, the same rate as commuters using train services in Melbourne.

Currently,regionalfares arecalculated based on distance travelled.

Under the policy, regional feeswillbe capped, with a$68.80 daily peak full-fare from Bendigo reduced to $9.80, which is the cost of afull-fare Zone1 +2 trip in Melbourne.

The concession charge of $4.60 in Melbourne would also be matched.

Areturntrip from Sale to SouthernCross on the V/Line is currently $62, or $31 with concession, which would be reduced to $9.80 full-fareor$4.60 concession.

The reduction to a$9.20 daily full-fare would also apply to areturnfull-farefrom Bairnsdale ($78.80), Traralgon ($64.40) and Warragul ($36.80).

Regional commuters who use aMyki Pass to travel between 28 and 365 days ayear, will also be capped at the Melbourne rate, currently $5.52 per day.

PublicTransportMinister,Ben Carroll, said last year that regional stations using paper tickets would beput on theMyki system in March.

Many regional stationsuse Myki, but patrons boarding stations such as Sale have had to resort to paper tickets.

The contractwith Japanese company NTT Data for the Myki card expires in November, and atender process is underway.

Mr Andrews recently suggested at anews conference in Melbourne that an upgrade may be needed.

“Weare very keen to see the best technology employed so that using a world-class public transport system is as easy and convenient as possible,” Mr Andrews said.

Lower fares and potentially anew ticketing system can encourage morepatronage.

During the election campaign, the state government pledged to deliver nearly 200 extra weekend services on the regional network, with an investment of $207 million.

On the Gippsland Line, this will mean trains every 40 minutes to Traralgon-8am to 9pm on weekends; andextending the Sunday service to Bairnsdale, which currently terminates at Sale.

Planningis underway for astaged introduction of these extra services, starting from 2024.

Anumber of daytime,weekendand long-distance services currently have spare capacity that will help absorb an increase in patronage.

The DepartmentofTransport and Planning is working throughdemand modelling of what the likely impact of the farechange will be and if additional services will be required.