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Wangaratta Chronicle 020623

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FRIDAY, June 2, 2023

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Upgrades bolster hospital

Extremist concerns postpone city event Page 3

Blockbuster ahead

Pages 23-30

Sport

WE’RE EXCITED GALEN Catholic College has teamed up with Liverpool Football Club to start a soccer academy. College principal Darta Hovey (left), and Kevin Kalinko, director of LFC’s International Academy Australia, made the arrangement official in front of a wholeschool assembly on Wednesday. Full story page 5. PHOTO: Kurt Hickling

NO RAIL RELIEF

UPGRADES to the state’s V/Line transport capacity won’t extend to the Albury line, with the North East set to be overlooked for the implementation of a further 23 VLocity trains from next year. There were also no plans for extra carriages on the Albury line since the increase in patronage, with extra buses instead to be placed on standby. The State Government recently announced a

exacerbated a lack of North East V/Line / capacity p y overlooked in state budget g had available space in non-

BY RYAN MALCOLM rmalcolm@ nemedia.com.au

$601m spend as part of the 2023/24 state budget to improve capacity on Victoria’s busiest regional train lines, with demand spiking considerably since the decision to cap V/Line fares at the same price as a

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THE POWER TO DO MORE

daily metropolitan ticket as of March 31. The move will see a further 23 VLocity trains rolled out along the Melton, Bachhus Marsh and Geelong lines, allowing nine-car train sets to run to boost capacity on the line by 50 per cent. A State Government spokesperson said there had been an increase in patronage on the Albury

line since the introduction of the regional fare cap on March 31, with 36,000 passenger trips taken since the start of the fare cap. “The most popular Albury line services are scheduled to run as six-carriage trains and we have been supporting busy services with standby coaches,” the spokesperson said. They said the Geelong and Ballarat lines were the busiest

on the V/Line network, and accounted for around 73 per cent of patronage on the state’s network in the last 12 months. Ovens Valley MP Tim McCurdy said it was disappointing for the North East to be overlooked for further upgrades, particularly following a “problematic” initial rollout of VLocity trains in the past 12 months. He said the fare cap

reserved carriages, resulting in reports of overcrowding throughout the region. “We have seen issues with the capacity of the new trains, particularly in the non-reserved seating, with horror stories of overcrowded carriages for the four-hour trip to Albury preventing access to toilets and seats for those who need them,” he said. ■ Continued page 4

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