V/Line commuters fed up after two months without trains to east Gippsland
Georgia Miles wants to see better public transport across Gippsland. (ABC Gippsland: Danielle Pope)
In short:
Train commuters in eastern Victoria have suffered years of disruptions and bus replacements due to line and signalling works.
Works on the line have forced the cancellation of all trains between Melbourne, Sale and Bairnsdale for almost two months.
What's next?
The Victorian government says more services will be added for east Gippsland after an upgrade of the line.
The last time Georgia Miles tried to catch the train, it had been replaced by a bus.
Stuck with five tired children trying to get home from Southern Cross station, Ms Miles said it was a long, cramped and uncomfortable trip.
And it wasn't the first time she'd been diverted onto a four-hour bus ride home.
Train outages on the Gippsland line have been a common occurrence since the line upgrade began in 2018.
"Whether it's track works or just lack of services, once you get beyond the Melbourne perimeter, things seem to go a lot slower and a lot less seems to get done,"she said.
Ms Miles lives in Bairnsdale, the final stop on the Gippsland line, 280 kilometres east of Melbourne.
There are only three V/Line services a day, to and from the city.
Often when Ms Miles needs a train, she drives to Traralgon, almost an hour and a half from home, because train services there are more frequent.
"I don't have to get up at the crack of dawn or wait until midday to catch a train," she said.
"If there were more services, people would use it."
Georgia Miles says trains to Bairnsdale aren't frequent enough. (ABC Gippsland: Danielle Pope)
Shuttle solutions
The Gippsland line is divided into two sections: one that runs to Traralgon, and one that continues from Traralgon further east to Bairnsdale.
It joins with the metropolitan system at East Pakenham Station, and from there follows the same tracks into Melbourne.
A winter schedule of works to the line has forced the cancellation of all trains between Melbourne, Sale and Bairnsdale for almost two months.
Trains won't return to operation until mid-August.
Ms Miles said she would like to see shuttle services between Traralgon and Bairnsdale, to improve access to public transport for people at the eastern end of the line.
A rail replacement bus at Drouin Station. (ABC Gippsland: Danielle Kutchel)
Is electrification the answer?
Most of Victoria's regional train fleet runs on diesel fuel.
But just a couple of decades ago, part of the Gippsland line was electrified to Traralgon.
The electrification was then slowly decommissioned and ended beyond Pakenham in 2001.
With Pakenham's population now booming, some commuters have suggested re-electrifying the line to offer more frequent services.
Public Transport Users Association spokesman Paul Westcott said the money it would cost to electrify the line would be better spent on duplicating tracks beyond Pakenham to Traralgon.
"The only real advantage of electrifying the line would be environmental, and there is only an environmental benefit if the trains are run by electricity that is sustainably produced as opposed to using diesel fuel," he said.
Paul Westcott says money would be best spent on increasing services on the Gippsland line, rather than electrifying the line. (ABC News: Erin Cooper)
The train track from Pakenham into Melbourne is the longest section in Victoria that's shared by regional and metropolitan trains.
That means V/Line services often get stuck and delayed behind Metro trains.
Mr Westcott said introducing moving-block signalling, which is being trialled elsewhere in Victoria, would allow trains to run closer together on the Gippsland line.
"It would certainly increase the capacity of those two tracks without having to build any more tracks and buy more land to expand the existing footprint of the railway line," he said.
The ABC submitted an extensive list of questions to the Victorian Department of Transport.
In response, a department spokesperson said more services would be added to the Gippsland line later in the year.