GIPPSLAND line passengers have won the right to their seats after a state government review saw a number of Pakenham pick up/drop off options removed from timetables.
New V/Line timetables mark Pakenham as drop off-only for city-bound services and pick up-only for Gippsland-bound.
ADVERTISEMENT
Traralgon and Bairnsdale line services are frequently used by Metro customers, who pay significantly less for their seats on the faster V/Line services due to zoning pricing rules.
Peak services are often overcrowded due to the presence of Pakenham passengers who could be on other services.
The new timetables will come into effect on 21 June 2015.
Update (18:25): People travelling from Gippsland to Pakenham and back will not be affected.
ADVERTISEMENT
[poll id=”17″]
Below from the 29 May 2015 edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen, out now for free from retailers across Baw Baw:
RAIL commuters frustrated by metropolitan passengers taking seats on regional services at cheaper rates may soon have a victory.
Pakenham commuters have the choice between both Metro and V/Line services, but only pay the lower Metro pricing to board the faster V/Line services.
Overcrowded evening peak services usually have spare seats after the Pakenham drop-off.
Sunbury is the only other station with a similar arrangement.
The Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen understands a review could see boarding restrictions implemented late next month, meaning Pakenham station would be set down only on city-bound services and pick up only for Gippsland-bound services.
Asked to confirm if that would be the case, a spokesperson for Public Transport Victoria said the rules were under review.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Pick up and set down rules for V/Line services are being considered by the Government as part of the broader network change that will take place with the start of services on Regional Rail Link,” the spokesperson told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen.
“Further information will be provided in coming weeks.”
So this is pretty much the best day ever. This is fantastic news, though I expect the people of pakenham will be up in arms and organise petitions and the like. Hopefully the government sticks to its gun and doesn’t cave like they have before. There is absolutely no reason for pakenham passengers to be on vline trains, if they want to use vline trains they should move to the country. Vline passengers should not be inconvenienced (having to stand for an hour of more) by pakenham passengers wanting a comfier seat.
FINALLY! I’m sick of sitting on the floor every afternoon cos they take up our seats.
How about just terminate the vline at Pakenham and country passengers, change to the Metro service for the remainder of their journey in to the city.
WILL NOT WORK!! The myki system is that stuffed up {has never worked} commuters are more savvy and will just move around this GOV abortion.! FIX MYKI FIRST U INCOMPETENT GOV. FOOLS try using public transport instead of taxpayer funded com cars U freeloaders
as above
You can’t really blame people from Pakenham for wanting to use the v-line service with Metro being so unreliable and the trains being sub standard compared to the v-line.
If V-line were smart they’d make their trains on this line longer instead of not allowing Pakenham passengers to use them and they’d find a way to charge them for it to make the most of it, I know i’d pay it…
All I can say is finally! Being a daily commuter the worst thing all country travellers is having the train over crowed with metro customers. They also bring a attitude as if they are entitled to be on a vline and will make a vline customer as uncomfortable as possible… The minimum a vline customer travels is 70mins where the adverage is 90mins, in my 5 years travel on peak and off peak services I am yet to have a friendly metro passenger, I’m hoping they stick to their guys
When there are enough metro services it might help the problem. Booting pakenham commuters off won’t ‘fix things’ it will make the metro trains even more crowded.
There is nothing stopping people from driving to a vline station instead of pakenham station to use a vline train too.
FINALLY some good news!! I am sick of sitting on the floor, standing in the aisle, then being pushed by so Metro passengers can get off. In the last 6 months I have not had a seat till Pakenham. So you can see I am very happy with the news 🙂
Please tell me that this is true! If so this is a HUGE win for Gippsland commuters. Time for Gippsland commuters to celebrate. I can recall 25 years ago we started to complain about Metro passengers using V/Line services and forcing V/Line commuters to stand or sit on the floor. Year after year V/Line Management ignored our pleas but finally common sense prevails!!! I wonder how it will be policed. I can recall on many occasions when full V/Line trains approached Packenham, the conductor told Met passengers that there was no room but they still stormed on board.
I am a Pakenham resident who has a back problem that is made worse by the hideous seating on Metro trains. My options if I have to get to Melbourne CBD are to drive east & park at a VLine station And use VLine services properly or drive west to Armadale, park there & minimise my use of the woeful seats.
This is absolutely required. There are passengers who are forced to spend over an hour of their 2-3 hour journeys standing up simply because of people from Pakenham (who only have about an hour total travel time) take many of the seats. This is the fair and reasonable thing to do so that vline customers (people from the country with no metro access) can have a comfortable journey which is worth the money they pay. And how dare people from Pakenham suggest we get off at Pakenham and change to a metro, how inconvenient, i’m sure you wouldn’t like to have to do 2 train changes.
I agree with the commenters above who note:
– the lack of carriages on our services – why do we often have five or six carriages on weekend services, but only three or occasionally four on weekday peak services? No wonder they are overcrowded, and the overcrowding does not stop/start at Pakenham (most of the time my Vline travel is only between Warragul and Pakenham, so most of the overcrowding I experience is not from Metro customers). (The most overcrowded service I catch with any regularity is the 4:25 pm from Pakenham towards Traralgon – shockingly overcrowded, and purely with VLine customers)
– the substandard nature of metro services – if I lived in Pakenham and had to commute to the city regularly, and I was allowed to board a VLine, I would do so too. No one likes a 70 minute commute, even less so when on trains that are never clean, always smell, have no facilities (toilets etc) appropriate for longer journeys, and during the peak get far more crowded than you will ever experience on even the worst VLine service.
– that the ticket prices, and the problems with Myki are much bigger issues than the presence of Metro customers.
So some empathy here for the Pakenham customers: I’ve been out in Warragul long enough to develop some of the local irritation with the hordes who get on at Pakenham; but I also have the past experience of living in Berwick while studying in the city – this was back in the days when Warragul had an electric joint VLine/Met service that ran express from Dandenong, and when the two Traralgon trains that still stop at Berwick where allowed to pick up passengers – I was so grateful for those services back then, and organised as much of my study timetable as possible around them. If I still lived in that area and still had to travel to the city regularly, and was still allowed to board VLine services, I would do so.
I guess this also cuts out the possibility of getting off at Pakenham, touching off, immediately touching back on, and immediately getting back on the train, in order to beat the unfair prices…
(see http://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/country-rail-passengers-myki-train-fare-evasion-decclared-unsafe/story-fnkfnspy-1227256466913 )
Regarding that link Simon, the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen published that story years before the Weekly Times got to it 😉 http://www.warragulcitizen.com/feat/what-myki-will-cost-baw-baw615
As much as I want this, I have to wonder how they are going to enforce this?
When we get on at SC, Flinders, Richmond, how will they know where we’re getting off?
Can’t see this working at all. If the train stops, people will get on/off.
I am a regular VLine commuter to and from Pakenham. The reason I catch it is that, as a shift worker who works 12 hour days, it saves me nearly an hour of travel time a day as the only metro services available at the times I travel are non-express.
Currently, there is no reason why people cannot get the VLine from Pakenham and despite previous comments, we are entitled to travel VLine services given the current regulation. If people commuting from Gippsland are concerned that they don’t get a seat then they should reserve one. Commuters to and from Pakenham are only permitted in the unreserved carriage(s) where it is fair game. For the people saying they are forced to stand or sit on the floor, I have never seen this happen and there are usually seats available but they choose not to sit in the middle seat. This is based on 6 years of continued travel on VLine. Wasn’t the whole purpose the State government permitted commuters to use VLine services from Pakenham was to decrease overcrowding of metro services. What do you think will happen when this goes through…
Well that’s fair! Even if the fares aren’t. If you compare a full fare Vline passenger has to fork out (for me $23.60 per day, and only a few stops from Pakenham) to a Pakenham full fare having to pay $7.52 or $3.76 if concession then this is a great outcome. Plus Pakenham have regular trains that sit there waiting for them. So catch your own designated Metro train and stop overcrowding the Vline trains where regional Victoria is the place to be. Yet the government make us pay for living out there and entice people to live in regional Victoria.
And apparently this will be enforced by the authorised officers who will be booking those people who get on at Pakenham or vice versa from the city to get off at Pakenham with a hefty $220 fine. So enter the Vline train at your own peril.
Unenforceable so why waste time debating it. As silly as the voluntary “Who got on in Warragul?” ticket checking.
The authorised officers have the ticket checking machines “Andrew”, and they can tell what sort of ticket you have when they do the checking. Boom Boom! They’ll be on board for at least 6 months to ensure the enforcement.
Nar Nar Goon will be next and then Drouin etc as the urban spread continues. Pakenham used to be country too
More trains stopping at Nar Nar Nar Nar Goon so paks can drive there!
Always thought it wrong that those who can do their entire travel requirements on metro system could get on the country services in some instances just for their own selfish desires. Hopefully there will be a mega bill to their Myki or On the Spot Fine for transgressors. One day I may be back out in the country and would be peaved if city dudes and/or dudettes hogs the availibity.
Oh yair “wysiwyg”. Sure they will…
If the metro trains didn’t take an additional 20 minutes to get to Southern Cross maybe it wouldn’t have been such an issue in the first place. This will create even further overcrowding on the metro trains. Some services are already at a point that people cannot even get on the train once it gets to Parliament.
They could have at least been savvy about this and allowed Paky commuters on during non-peak times. I will now drive to the city for work and events on the weekends. I am not sitting on a train for 80 minutes one way. Great way to encourage people to use public transport… not
There is NO “mega bill to their Myki or On the Spot Fine for transgressors” who alight from Vline train in Berwick at 4:11pm every day.
All I can it is the best that could happen
It is pretty unfair. The Metro trains are so packed that people travelling from town can barely get on the train as it is. Now the metro trains will become even more unbearable. I would actually pay more to travel on the VLINE if I had to pay it. Now I will just drive to Koo We Rup and catch the train.
Am taking Vline every morning from Pakenham, if you don’t stop I will drive up to Nar Nar Goon and get in, and will be campaigning to encourage other people also to drive up to Nar Nar Goon which is just a 10 minute give or take, ARE YOU HAPPY BLOODY CRAPPY COUNTRY PEOPLE???? We all pay tax, if you are running out of money increase the fare, we can pay it, not a big deal.
This is great news and a common sense decision, this service is overcrowded at peak times and this is an easy and quick solution.
I have been using this line for over 6 years and in the last year or two I have seen a HUGE increase in its patronage.
I travel home from either Clayton/Dandy to Warragul (full fare) and I often sit on the floor or in the luggage racks.
I am sorry to the regular Pakenham commuters I see using the service but you now need to put pressure on Met to improve your service too.
So happy about this!!! Getting a seat in the afternoon on the train home will be wonderful instead of sitting on the floor.
I’ve been hearing a lot of negative comments from Pakenham passengers in the article and FB comments about catching the train from Nar Nar Goon instead. As long as you’re paying for using the v/Line service right?!
Pakenham to Melbourne:
28 day: $129.36
7 day: $37.60
Nar Nar Goon to Melbourne:
28 day: $229.60
7 day: $69.20
If you decide to take the train from Nar Nar Goon instead of Pakenham:
28 day: $100.24 more
7 day: $ 31.60 more
– 10-12 min drive from Nar Nar Goon to Pakenham (approx. 10km)
– 5- 8 mins from Nar Nar Goon to Pakenham on the train.
Eric Jake, ARE YOU HAPPY BLOODY CRAPPY COUNTRY PEOPLE???? If I were you I would sit down and have a think about where a lot of your food comes from, and if that is all you think of country people. Go hungry for a week and see how you feel about COUNTRY people then.
ohh come on COUNTRY PEOPLE, are you offended? this Vline makes money from from pakenham crowd, other than that it is a deserted empty train. you live in country is your choice not mine. with the development when you come towards city you will see this. Toughened up people. we pay same tax so y cant we have the same service???? I paid 196 earlies paying 229 is not a problem, my daily salary is $550 working in city, so money is not a problem and as am well organized as a family 10 minutes is not a problem as well to drive up to Nar Nar goon. for lazy people like you 10 minutes is a big deal. Grow up people and think of other countries like Hong Kong, Japan south korea, best railway system not like this crappy dividing servie, grow up with the world and come out of country thinking.
I think Ben’s idea is the best ever – vline stops at pakenham and all SO CALLED COUNTRY PEOPLE crying for seats can join with Metro. Vline should not proceed beyond pakenham, how do you like it country people????
The problem is the lack of infrastructure. The Dandenong rail easement desperately need more track to allow train passing at speed. The lack of proper express Metro trains from Pakenham/Dandenong to the inner suburbs is pathetic considering it is 2015. The VLine trains which can travel at 160kph are forced to crawl behind Metro stopping all station trains. It is no wonder people abandon trains for their cars and the road congestion just gets worse.
The V Line service often travels at the speed of the stopping-all-stations Metro service. An additional rail line is required to accommodate Metro express and V line service. V line and Metro passengers unite! Inadequate infrastructure is the problem for all.
Eric, I don’t think the myki system can tell Metro and V/Line touches apart other than by zoning. The Pakenham Zone 2 readers can’t tell if the touch off is from someone coming off a Metro service or a V/Line service.
The issue that a number of people have missed is Zone 1+2 only passengers pay significantly less for travel in those zones than those travelling to/from Zone 3 onwards: http://www.warragulcitizen.com/local/un-fare-rail-ticket-costs-down-in-city-up-in-country997
Getting a bit touchy there Eric Jake. Good luck with your campaign. However, there are a lot of houses going up in Warragul, Drouin, Longwarry, so the Vline trains over the past 5 years (that I have noticed) there is a lot more regional people using the service, and will be over the coming years.Vline can’t put on extra carriages during the weekdays because “Metro” don’t allow it, apparently its all mathematical. So what about campaigning to Metro about doing something mathematical with the Pakenham Metro trains eg. creating an express similar to Vline if you think you’re so precious.
YAY!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!
I will start using the service again.
I started driving this year because it was overcrowded all the time especially getting on at Dandy at peak times.
I am a regular commuter to and from the city (for near on 9 years now) and completely understand the frustration of country travelers on the Vline train, however this self entitled attitude of ‘get them off our trains’ is a joke! I regularly will stand in order for a longer traveling occupant to have a seat and have witnessed this time and time again. Until your name appears in either their annual funding report, or better yet on a gold plaque on the side of the train you are a commuter. You are not special. You have chosen to live in the country ,and when I moved to Pakenham over 15 years ago so did I.
Your complaint regarding overcrowding is valid, but if you really want to see overcrowding then get off at Pakenham and catch a Metro, or better yet, try and get home a Metro.
Focus on the issue instead of your want to be, self entitled, silver spoon rants.
…*rant over*…
Good for you Eric! Have your campaign sign ready at Pakenham so we can all have a chuckle about it when we see you on the train. If you earn so much, why don’t you go live closer to Melbourne OR catch the train from Nar Nar Goon, pay for the V/Line service and deal with it. 16 days and counting!
For those who didn’t read it: Today, The Herald Sun on 4 June 2015 had an article on the “front page” re Pakenham and Sunbury commuters being barred from the Vline services as at 21/6/2015. And it was continued on page 5 to say that those that get on to go to the City and get off to these locations will be fined $217 dollars.
Time to now privatise Vline, the ownership of Vline really is a joke, the public has been removed from public transport because quite clearly the country people “own” the train – always loved the obnoxious country folk who think they own a train. It appears that the zombie trains during the morning will have to be cancelled, and instead of 5 trains after 3pm-7:30pm, I’d say three will now be sufficient, I’m so pleased that your bags, feet and thermoses can now enjoy a good seat. I however thankfully will try to work from home more often, and instead of visiting our amazing city after hours, well I’ll not be travelling by train, and when you’ve been on the network 20 or so years, I feel I too, should have some form of life membership, I too therefore “own” the trains.
Oh also maybe I’m confused,but does this mean vline passengers cannot use the Loop or travel on a metro to a metropolitan station too? Do they get fined for getting off at Melbourne Central?
I can’t believe all the fuss. It is simple. Rural communities use V/Line, Metropolitan communities use Metro. It is not rocket science. Many many many years ago towns east of Dandenong were considered rural, however suburbia spread to Pakenham a long long time ago. To those the Metropolitan commuters please focus your frustrations to Metro and leave us rural folk alone. BTW, according to V/Line those boarding V/Line trains from Metro stations (ie Pakenham, Dandenong, Berwick, Clayton) have NEVER contributed to the running costs of V/Line trains. It has always been rural commuters.
If it takes an hour to get to Pakenham , and Pakenham passengers are taking up all the seats , then instead of standing for 2 to 3 hours wouldn’t you be able to sit down after an hour ?
Eric Jake – you earn $550 a day and live in Pakenham??? Seriously with all your wads of cash in your wallet you decided to live in Pakenham and catch a train each day to work rather than use all your $$ to drive in…. this is the funniest !*$# ive read in ages….
A good decision by VLine. I’ve been communicating with them for many years about this matter. Pakenham commuters have over 60 Metro Trains each way each day (weekdays), while Vline passengers ‘enjoy’ approximately 12 trains each way each weekday.
Eric Jake ,you are a total waste of space.
The problem is NOT trains or infrastructure. THE PROBLEM IS GROSS INCOMPETENCE OF AND TURF-WAR SQUABBLING BETWEEN PTV, V/LINE AND METRO MANAGEMENTS. The Victorian Railways had no problem running interstate, intrastate and suburban passenger and freight trains on the same tracks, and pretty well on-time, because VR was a unified, integrated system run by genuine, competent, knowledgeable, experienced, life-long career RAILWAYMEN – managers, train controllers(despatchers), etc., despite VR being constantly starved of funds by the Govt. (Google “SAR Commissioner William Webb” and “VR Commissioner Harold Clapp”.) When Labor “reformed”(stuffed) the VR in the early 80s and Kennett destroyed and Balkanised the system in the 90s virtually all were progressively sacked and replaced by overpaid incompetent ignorant useless 3rd-class bureaucrats, bean-counters and executives dredged from banks, stockbroking firms, supermarkets, department-stores, spin-consultancies, Mars-Bar factories, interstate and UK; and trackwork construction and maintenance was contracted out to political-mate construction companies and consultant firms, and that’s why there are mudholes in tracks all over Victoria and track heat-buckle train slowdowns in summer (the Pilbara heavy-haul mineral railways don’t have problems in 50C heat). Regional Farce Rail, Southern Crap Station and the Useless Rail Link add nothing to efficient rail operation and are a total waste of money. Google “V/Line”, select “About V/Line”, “Our Company”, “Board and Executive Team”, read their CVs and LinkedIn profiles and you will understand why public transport is the monumental stuff-up. If VR had been retained and given the billions stuffed by politicians into the privatised pockets of today’s Political-Private Partnerships we would have the best public transport system in the world.
(From a rail-enthusiast internet forum, 30 May 2015: “Melbourne is in a continuing capacity crisis because the UK-led DoI/DoT/PTV will not use the best capacity enhancer: double-deck trains (UK doesn’t have them, so Melbourne mustn’t), proffering all sorts of fake ‘reasons’, which they have now ignored when adopting a double-deck bus solution for an RRL missing link. ‘London has double-deck buses, so Melbourne must’. RRL was designed wrongly, and justified with fake ‘reasons’. The capacity increase from RRL has been grossly overstated, and could have been achieved for billions less with double-deck trains, and with improved signalling headways. The electric route to Werribee is signalled for 15 tph. The route to Newport is signalled for 30 tph. It should be easy to run 6 tph to Williamstown, but Altona remains restricted to 3 tph, and its unreliability propagates.
So far, PTV hasn’t published any of the 21.6.15 timetables. Running times to Geelong remain a mystery, and the politically-inspired 20 min headways can’t go to Marshall or Waurn Ponds, because the necessary infrastructure hasn’t been built.
When I rode RRL to Sunshine last week, the time needed was 14 min: that is a 1 min improvement over the times for the preceding 40 years. All those billions for 1 min.”)
YOU GET THE GOVERNMENTS AND CONSEQUENTLY THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM YOU DESERVE. IF COUNTRY PEOPLE WANT BETTER GOVERNMENT, STOP VOTING FOR POLITICAL-PARTY POLITICIANS AND VOTE ONLY FOR YOUR LOCAL INDEPENDENTS.
* ATTENTION MODERATOR: please replace my two previous comments with the amended following, thanks:
Adding to my comment 1:09pm 10/6/2015:
Because there is no-one in V/Line, Metro or PTV who knows anything about railways, politicians and their industry mates now decide which gold-plated infrastructure to build, what overpriced hardware to buy, etc., to benefit their pockets, and there is no-one to check their dishonesty. VR could have built in their own Workshops a fleet of country passenger cars at a fraction of the cost of the overpriced, gold-plated “Velocipede” railcars (it was done in the 80s – the “N” class cars). The $1 billion Regional Farce Rail (no competent railway would have closed the lines for a year to do the job) made insignificant difference on the affected lines and singling the double-track line north of Kyneton – mindless idiocy – reduced capacity of the Bendigo line. The $1 billion Southern Crap station is a disaster, designed by junk architects who have no idea what a railway station is. The Useless Rail Link, built to “separate country trains from suburban trains to eliminate conflict/congestion” is a gigantic multi-billion con-job: it has been possible to separate these services for decades via the little-used freight lines from Sunshine and Newport to the city. The privatised rail operators rely on the public’s ignorance of railways to claim “freight and passenger trains can’t mix”. This is lying hogwash – freight and passenger trains share tracks all over the world. The $1.5 billion Mickey-Mouse Myki ticketing disaster is a Political-Private Partnership sweetheart deal as dishonest as they get, when far better overseas systems are available at much lower cost (one designed in Australia!). The 1970 state-of-the-art, fully-automated, computer-controlled Hump Marshalling Yard in Melbourne, a major project to completely rebuild the VR central marshalling yard and freight terminal and designed and built by VR, cost (1970)$14 million and paid for itself in operational savings in 6 years (Google “Hump Marshalling Yard”). $14 million(1970) is about $150 million(2015), which is the average present cost of grade-separating level crossings, showing how much dishonest gold-plating there is in today’s business-and-politician-driven public-transport projects.
In a March “Age” ad for “Appointments to V/Line Board” it says, “…Knowledge of V/Line services an advantage…”(!) (“Vacancy: Brain Surgeon. Knowledge of anatomy an advantage.” / “Wanted: Airline Pilot. Knowledge of planes an advantage.”). Is it any wonder that our public transport is such a dishonest, expensive, incompetent stuff-up?
A matter not being acknowledged by the Pakenham passengers here citing overcrowding on their own services as reason for using V/Line trains, is that Pakenham passengers are also using V/Line trains during off-peak times, causing overcrowding on V/Line services when there is ample room on their own services to comfortably accommodate them.
A quick glance at the timetable reveals that at off peak times Pakenham passengers have a train every twenty minutes, as opposed to our hourly trains. With several Traralgon services a day being replaced by a combined Bairnsdale/Traralgon service, the seats available to Trarlgon line passengers on those combined services are limited, and yet, Pakenham passengers insist on taking up those that do exist, in the middle of the day, when there are plenty of seats available on the metro Pakenham service.
I can’t blame Pakenham passengers travelling some distance to and from work for enjoying the more comfortable and faster country trains, but we’re also subsidising plenty of metro passengers out for a day’s shopping who simply prefer travelling on the V/Line trains when there are plenty of available seats on metro services. So, overcrowding is far from the only reason Pakenham passengers are using the V/Line services. For a large part of the day and for a great many passengers, it is merely preference. And in that case, no, it’s not fair either to cause overcrowding or not to pay your own way.
To address Erik Jake, who says, “ohh come on COUNTRY PEOPLE, are you offended? this Vline makes money from from pakenham crowd, other than that it is a deserted empty train. ”
Erik, V/Line is a not for profit organisation. It doesn’t “make money” from the Pakenham crowd.
You also say, “you live in country is your choice not mine.”
Yessssss, that’s right Erik. And you live in Pakenham. That’s your choice, not mine, so get the Pakenham train.
I live in Pakenham and I commute to the City everyday and have no problem with being excluded from travelling on V/line trains moving forward however for those country passengers whinging about how slow V/line trains run through surburbia get use to it because it will get a lost worse because inevitably Metro will have to run more trains on this line soon.
This will get reversed as it is insane. Country folk are nothing but spoiled brats. Lived in rural NSW. Try that. Vic pansies.
to Me: is it really funny? are u still laughing and enjoying. who the #&^#&^( to tell me to drive, u cannot make decisions on my money, get out of country mind. what’s wrong with Pakenham. You need to get rid of jealousy which is burning you.
haahhaaa a very funny thing last week on a vline comes to our Glorious town Pakenham at 7.10. We got in to the last quiet carriage and there were nicely dressed but 6 girls and 2 teachers rotten mouths from country, they simply couldn’t read “this is a quiet carriage and the rest of the message and was sitting under the notice” one of the teacher is going to City after 3 years and girls don’t know which is Croydon and Clayton and shouting giggling and dirty laundering whole one hour to southern cross. there are few elderly gentlemen who always come and say to respect to the fact its a quiet carriage and those men are from pakenham, where is the manners you country people have, first teach your brats and rats to behave lol. haahaa funniest is seeing MCG the jaws were down and saying “OMG MCG is massive” saw for the first time lol. “Me” come often to city with your kids also, if not they will be surprised. lol. these are funny things , money is not funny, can I teach you something :When money talks none of the f….rs talk. got it. lol. enjoy
Nothing has changed. Pakenham residents still use Vline trains at the cheaper rate of course. Forty travellers got off Vline train at Pakenham at 4:25pm, Wednesday 1st July. Passengers beyond Pakenham still have to sit on floor or stand up. Come on Vline, where are your Inspectors???
Alan – you are not up to date, this has been postponed for another 6 months to be enforced, so we still catch the Vline. Hurraaayyyy!!!! And after 6 months still it will be the same. Mr. Alan its not a valid argument saying you have to sit on the floor, this Wed, Thur and today there were half the carriage was with empty seats, believe me there were people still sat on the floor and on luggage racks, its their choice cannot blame others. Imagine Vline is losing the myki rate per travel from pake crowd if not allowing to get aboard and empty seats both ways. I think everybody should think differently. Its the Opportunity Cost which leads to “Manage or Perish”.
Eric Jake, I had heard something similar communicated through word of mouth about the 6 month postponement on enforcement.
Is there anything anywhere in writing about this?
What right did the train conductor have to tell me to get off the train because the Trailgon train because I wanted to get off at Packenham? The new law have not yet been past.
Hi Mimma,
The new timetable came into effect over a month ago, as is mentioned in the article.
All the best,
Will – WBBC editor
I suppose the country travelers have never tried to juggle 2 suitcases on a Metro train to Pakenham as I had to do recently. Nowhere to put bags. I would prefer to be able to continue using V/Line to connect with the airport shuttle. Much easier and more comfortable, particularly after a long flight.
This is exactly the same as Sunbury. These are Metropolitan Stations and the patrons at these must use their own services not V/Line. Bendigo line has similar problems many of us long distance commuters have to stand or sit in the luggae racks or on the floor till we get to Sunbury when all the minions get off its pathetic and selfish by the offennding commuters.
Just so you know, Pakenham isn’t even fully recognised as metro. I moved here last year and caught the vline in but now don’t anymore. For the time I caught vline I was never rude to anyone, just minded my own business. I can’t believe some of the comments here, and they show that it’s not just some metro passengers that are rude. I’m disgusted at the general attitude here.
As for the train system, it’s still stuffed, and metro will never be organised enough to stop having over crowded trains. At least with vline they stop picking up at Pakenham, and whilst I was catching it in the morning I’d usually get a seat by Dandenong if not straight away.